We present a novel design and the test results of a 4-channel driver for an array of Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers (VCSELs). This ASIC, named cpVLAD and fabricated in a 65 nm CMOS technology, has on-chip charge pumps and is for data rates up to 10 Gbps per channel. The charge pumps are implemented to address the issue of voltage margin of the VCSEL driving stage in the applications under low temperature and harsh radiation environment. Test results indicate that cpVLAD is capable of driving VCSELs with forward voltages of up to 2.8 V using 1.2 V and 2.5 V power supplies with a power consumption of 94 mW/channel.
We present the design and test results of a Drivers and Limiting AmplifierS ASIC operating at 10 Gbps (DLAS10) and three Miniature Optical Transmitter/Receiver/Transceiver modules (MTx+, MRx+, and MTRx+) based on DLAS10. DLAS10 can drive two Transmitter Optical Sub-Assemblies (TOSAs) of Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs), receive the signals from two Receiver Optical Sub-Assemblies (ROSAs) that have no embedded limiting amplifiers, or drive a VCSEL TOSA and receive the signal from a ROSA, respectively. Each channel of DLAS10 consists of an input Continuous Time Linear Equalizer (CTLE), a four-stage limiting amplifier (LA), and an output driver. The LA amplifies the signals of variable levels to a stable swing. The output driver drives VCSELs or impedance-controlled traces. DLAS10 is fabricated in a 65 nm CMOS technology. The die is 1 mm x 1 mm. DLAS10 is packaged in a 4 mm x 4 mm 24-pin quad-flat no-leads (QFN) package. DLAS10 has been tested in MTx+, MRx+, and MTRx+ modules. Both measured optical and electrical eye diagrams pass the 10 Gbps eye mask test. The input electrical sensitivity is 40 mVp-p, while the input optical sensitivity is -12 dBm. The total jitter of MRx+ is 29 ps (P-P) with a random jitter of 1.6 ps (RMS) and a deterministic jitter of 9.9 ps. Each MTx+/MTRx+ module consumes 82 mW/ch and 174 mW/ch, respectively.
An all transistor active inductor shunt peaking structure has been used in a prototype of 8-Gbps high-speed VCSEL driver which is designed for the optical link in ATLAS liquid Argon calorimeter upgrade. The VCSEL driver is fabricated in a commercial 0.25-um Silicon-on-Sapphire (SoS) CMOS process for radiation tolerant purpose. The all transistor active inductor shunt peaking is used to overcome the bandwidth limitation from the CMOS process. The peaking structure has the same peaking effect as the passive one, but takes a small area, does not need linear resistors and can overcome the process variation by adjust the peaking strength via an external control. The design has been tapped out, and the prototype has been proofed by the preliminary electrical test results and bit error ratio test results. The driver achieves 8-Gbps data rate as simulated with the peaking. We present the all transistor active inductor shunt peaking structure, simulation and test results in this paper.
The advanced nanoscale integration available in silicon complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology provides a key motivation for its use in spin-based quantum computing applications. Initial demonstrations of quantum dot formation and spin blockade in CMOS foundry-compatible devices are encouraging, but results are yet to match the control of individual electrons demonstrated in university-fabricated multi-gate designs. We show here that the charge state of quantum dots formed in a CMOS nanowire device can be sensed by using floating gates to electrostatically couple it to a remote single electron transistor (SET) formed in an adjacent nanowire. By biasing the nanowire and gates of the remote SET with respect to the nanowire hosting the quantum dots, we controllably form ancillary quantum dots under the floating gates, thus enabling the demonstration of independent control over charge transitions in a quadruple (2x2) quantum dot array. This device overcomes the limitations associated with measurements based on tunnelling transport through the dots and permits the sensing of all charge transitions, down to the last electron in each dot. We use effective mass theory to investigate the necessary optimization of the device parameters in order to achieve the tunnel rates required for spin-based quantum computation.
PARISROC is a complete read out chip, in AMS SiGe 0.35 micron technology [1], for photomultipliers array. It allows triggerless acquisition for next generation neutrino experiments and it belongs to an R&D program funded by the French national agency for research (ANR) called PMm2: Innovative electronics for photodetectors array used in High Energy Physics and Astroparticles [2] (ref.ANR-06-BLAN- 0186). The ASIC integrates 16 independent and auto triggered channels with variable gain and provides charge and time measurement by a Wilkinson ADC and a 24-bit Counter. The charge measurement should be performed from 1 up to 300 photo-electrons (p.e.) with a good linearity. The time measurement allowed to a coarse time with a 24-bit counter at 10 MHz and a fine time on a 100ns ramp to achieve a resolution of 1 ns. The ASIC sends out only the relevant data through network cables to the central data storage. This paper describes the front-end electronics ASIC called PARISROC.
PARISROC is a complete read out chip, in AMS SiGe 0.35 !m technology, for photomultipliers array. It allows triggerless acquisition for next generation neutrino experiments and it belongs to an R&D program funded by the French national agency for research (ANR) called PMm2: ?Innovative electronics for photodetectors array used in High Energy Physics and Astroparticles? (ref.ANR-06-BLAN-0186). The ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) integrates 16 independent and auto triggered channels with variable gain and provides charge and time measurement by a Wilkinson ADC (Analog to Digital Converter) and a 24-bit Counter. The charge measurement should be performed from 1 up to 300 photo- electrons (p.e.) with a good linearity. The time measurement allowed to a coarse time with a 24-bit counter at 10 MHz and a fine time on a 100ns ramp to achieve a resolution of 1 ns. The ASIC sends out only the relevant data through network cables to the central data storage. This paper describes the front-end electronics ASIC called PARISROC.