Two low-power optical data transmission ASICs for the ATLAS Liquid Argon Calorimeter readout upgrade

TL;DR

This paper presents the design and testing of two low-power, radiation-tolerant optical data transmission ASICs, LOCx2-130 and LOCld-130, for the ATLAS liquid argon calorimeter upgrade, offering comparable performance to existing solutions with reduced power consumption.

Contribution

The paper introduces two new ASICs, LOCx2-130 and LOCld-130, designed in 130-nm CMOS technology, providing low power consumption while meeting upgrade performance requirements.

Findings

LOCx2-130 and LOCld-130 meet phase-I upgrade specs

Power consumption is significantly reduced compared to baseline ASICs

Test results confirm performance and radiation tolerance

Abstract

A serializer ASIC and a VCSEL driver ASIC are needed for the front-end optical data transmission in the ATLAS liquid argon calorimeter readout phase-I upgrade. The baseline ASICs are the serializer LOCx2 and the VCSEL driver LOCld, designed in a 0.25-{\mu}m Silicon-on-Sapphire (SoS) CMOS technology and consumed 843 mW and 320 mW, respectively. Based on a 130-nm CMOS technology, we design two pin-to-pin-compatible backup ASICs, LOCx2-130 and LOCld-130. Their power consumptions are much lower then of their counterparts, whereas other performance, such as the latency, data rate, and radiation tolerance, meet the phase-I upgrade requirements. We present the design of LOCx2-130 and LOCld-130. The test results of LOCx2-130 are also presented.