Optical transceivers for interconnections in satellite payloads

The increasing data rates and processing on board satellites call for the use of photonic interconnects providing high-bit-rate performance as well as valuable savings in mass and volume. Therefore, optical transmitter and receiver technology is developed for aerospace applications. The metal-ceramic-packaging with hermetic fiber pigtails enables robustness for the harsh spacecraft environment, while the 850-nm VCSEL-based transceiver technology meets the high bit-rate and low power requirements. The developed components include 6 Gbps SpaceFibre duplex transceivers for intra-satellite data links and 40 Gbps parallel optical transceivers for board-to-board interconnects. Also, integration concept of inter-chip optical interconnects for onboard processor ICs is presented.