Space-grade Opto-electronic Interfaces for Photonic Digital and Analogue Very-high-throughput Satellite payloads

Project Information

SIPhoDiAS

Grant agreement ID: 870522

DOI

10.3030/870522

Project closed

EC signature date 18 December 2019

Start date 1 January 2020

End date 30 June 2023

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies – Space

Total cost

€ 2 999 042,50

EU contribution

€ 2 999 042,50

Coordinated by

LEO SPACE PHOTONICS R&D MONOPROSOPIIKE
Greece

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - SIPhoDiAS (Space-grade Opto-electronic Interfaces for Photonic Digital and Analogue Very-high-throughput Satellite payloads)

Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2023-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Following their widespread installation within terrestrial datacentres, photonics are gearing up for their penetration into modern communication satellites. “VHTS – Very High Throughput Satellites” - are offering a technologically advanced expansion of the terrestrial communication network capable to deliver high-end connectivity in diverse end-user locations. To do so, VHTS is requested to push the next frontier in the Terabit/second range under stringent SWaP boundary conditions driving the migration towards photonics. This migration is already “going live”; Thales Alenia Space is the first prime to introduce optical interconnects in a commercial system, opening the opportunity for photonics penetration in every part of the satellite payload. To complete the effort, a new class of photonic building blocks, i.e. optical transceivers, modulators and photodetectors are necessary. These components are installed in the highest volumes and are used to optically interconnect the satellite payload equipment – the same way as O/E interfaces are used to optically interconnect racks and boards of equipment within datacentres. The current O/E component generation is still lacking in terms of speed, power consumption and size and an upgrade of performance accommodated by reliability has to be demonstrated. H2020-SPACE-SIPhoDiAS has evolved with the aim to deliver new types of high-speed optical transceivers, high bandwidth modulators and photodetectors, addressing opto-electronic performance, size and power, and at the same time, demonstrate their reliability enabling the next generation of VHTS payload systems.

To deliver this new family of O/E interfaces, SIPhoDiAS has invested in the following core technologies:
o Rad-hard SiGe BiCMOS technology used to manufacture high-speed optical transceiver electronic circuits
o GaAs monolithic integration used to manufacture high-bandwidth electro-optic modulator integrated circuits
o InGaAs monolithic integration used to manufacture high-bandwidth photodetectors
o Innovative module assembly to package high-speed optical transceivers, high-bandwidth electro-optic modulators and miniaturized analogue photodetectors.

Using this technologies, SIPHODIAS has delivered the following:
- 100 Gb/s Optical transceiver chipset and module demonstrated at TRL 5
- 50 GHz GaAs electro-optic modulator demonstrated at TRL 7
- >35 GHz analogue photodetector module demonstrated at TRL 7
- System-level verification testing of the opto-electronic modules in digital and microwave-photonic system demonstrators

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

SIPHODIAS has delivered 17 prototypes through multiple wafer runs to produce integrated circuits, packaging activities to deliver photonic modules and assembly/integration activities to deliver sub-systems and system demonstrators.

SIPHODIAS has delivered a Test Programme which involved diverse reliability testing activities at module and system-level. These included 23 test activities with multiple test legs:
- 7 radiation test campaigns involving gamma and proton radiation sub-tests
- 12 functional verification test campaigns
- 4 evaluation test programmes (ETP) including 2 module-level ETPs with >30 sub-tests and 2 demonstrator ETP including >5 sub-tests

Through this evaluation test campaign, SIPhoDiAS demonstrated:
• OTRx modules at TRL 5-6, with optical transceiver electronics verified against Total Ionizing Dose (TID) and Displacement Damage (DD) radiation effects. In addition, OTRx modules were tested within a sub-system assembly in representative flight conditions.
• GaAs modulator modules at TR 7, tested at module and sub-system level in representative flight conditions.
• PD module at TRL 7, tested at module and sub-system level in representative flight conditions.
• Through these design and MAIT activities, SIPhODiAS has delivered the complete development cycle from critical design, to IC and module manufacturing and finally sub-system demonstration.

SIPhODiAS has registered ~70 dissemination activities, including conference presentations, invited workshop presentations, journal publications and communication to ESA through the ESA Photonics Working Group. A detailed account of dissemination actions and access to material is included in the “News” section of the project website (https://www.space-siphodias.eu/news-2/). 9 perspective products have been registered, from integrated circuits to modules and sub-systems. All of these items have completed the route from design concept, detailed design, manufacturing, assembly, integration and testing. The completion of the prototyping activity provides confidence for the entry to the industrialization phase which will open business opportunities. SIPhODiAS has generated >15 IP items including tangible and intangible elements that are now available for further exploitation by the project partners.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

SIPHODIAS has demonstrated key advancements in performance and reliability of its target opto-electronic modules. More specifically:

1. Optical transceiver chipset and module
- Design, fabrication and test of 4-channel rad-hard VCSEL driver (VCSEL DRV) IC, Transimpedance Amplifier (TIA) IC and 4Tx – 4Rx OTRx module demonstrating:
- Robust transceiver electronics with no effect on performance by ionizing and non-ionizing radiation – tested up to 100 krad (TID) and 5E11 p/cm^2 (60 MeV) protons.
- 32 Gb/s and beyond per lane operation of the transceiver chipset with power efficiency <5.86 mW/Gb/s.

2. Microwave photonics
- GaAs MZM module with on-chip termination featuring bandwidth >50 GHz for Vpi (DC) of 4.6 V.
- GaAs MZM passed successfully module-level ETP including thermo-mechanical, hermeticity, accelerated life and TID/DD irradiation testing.
- PD module with integrated lens featuring bandwidth >35 GHz, responsivity >0.8 A/W (1550 nm) and record low footprint of 2.36 cm2.
- PD module passed successfully module-level ETP including thermo-mechanical, hermeticity, accelerated life and TID/DD irradiation testing.

3. Sub-system demonstration
Design, fabrication and testing of 3 sub-system prototypes and demonstrators including:
- Electro-optic modulation sub-system (EOM slice)
- Electrical conversion sub-system (O2E slice)
- Optical transceiver sub-system (OTRx slice)
- Microwave photonic system (MWPS) demonstrator
- Digital photonic system (DPS) demonstrator

Project demonstrators were subjected to the following tests:
- Mechanical shock
- Sine and random vibration
- Thermal testing

Through these test campaigns SiPhODiAS has demonstrated the following:
o Microwave photonic equipment testing demonstrated robust end-to-end RF performance against thermo-mechanical stress
o Digital photonic equipment testing demonstrated robust performance against mechanical stress

The achievement of these targets are fully in line with the project system objectives and the end-user roadmap as well as they constitute significant advancements in the application area of hi-rel digital and analog O/E modules. Apart from its scientific impact, SIPHODIAS has realized its strategic impact of setting up a European supply chain of space photonics components and systems. This value chain is critical for the delivery of photonic payload systems within Europe removing dependencies on non-European technologies. With this basis it is expected that SIPHODIAS developments will be leveraged to deliver operational satellite systems which are already being specified in the next 5-year horizon.

Figure 2. SIPhODiAS Microwave Photonics highlights

Figure 1. SIPhODiAS OTRx highlights

Figure 3. SIPhODiAS system-level AIT highlights