Ultra-High Reliability Ultra-High Speed Silicon Integrated Circuits for Undersea Optical Communications Systems

A line of ultra-high-speed ultra-high reliability integrated circuits have been designed for use in undersea optical communication systems. These are bipolar circuits using junction isolation and are realized in both standard buried collector, microwave junction isolated monolithic (MJIM) and microwave complementary bipolar integrated circuit (MCBIC) technology. The design of these circuits depends heavily on the technology used to realize the discrete transitors for undersea systems which are now deployed in a number of transoceanic locations. The reliability of the circuits is assured by application of the methodology distilled and refined from that used in previous undersea system developments. This paper summarizes how these previous developments have influenced the design of these circuits and presents the early reliability results within the context of the data accumulated in 20 years of monitoring undersea semiconductor device reliabilty.