Aerospace transceivers built with flip-chip VCSEL packaging

Over the past 5 years, Peregrine has developed a low-cost, manufacturable approach to building parallel optic transceivers based on the flip-chip bonding of GaAs VCSEL and PIN arrays onto CMOS-on-sapphire ICs. The first product was a 4+4 transceiver with each channel operating at 2.5 Gbps for a space application. This paper describes the development of the second generation of this product, currently at the prototype stage. This prototype transceiver addresses several technical hurdles in building parallel optical transceivers for harsh environment space and military aerospace applications.