Radiation-hard ASICs for optical data transmission in the ATLAS pixel detector

Abstract

We have developed two radiation-hard ASICs for optical data transmission in the ATLAS pixel detector at the LHC at CERN: a driver chip for a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) diode for 80 Mbit/s data transmission from the detector, and a Bi-Phase Mark decoder chip to recover the control data and 40 MHz clock received optically by a PIN diode. We have successfully implemented both ASICs in 0.25 mm CMOS technology using enclosed layout transistors and guard rings for increased radiation hardness. We present results from circuits of final design and from irradiation studies with 24 GeV protons up to 62 Mrad (2.3 x 10^15 p/cm^2).