SpaceABLE optical transceivers successfully reach > 4000 h of accelerated life test

Reflex Photonics is proud to announce that its SpaceABLE SM radiation-resistant transceivers have exceeded the minimal requirement of 2500 h of accelerated life test for GEO 20 years in-satellite operation with no performance degradation outside measurement uncertainty.

These modules are on their way to successfully complete 4000 h of the same test; having completed 3000 h as of October 19. This confirms the ruggedness of Reflex Photonics’ transceivers and exceeds the very demanding requirements for GEO space applications.

No performance degradation after 3000 h

A group of 18 SpaceABLE SM 40G (4TRX) transceiver modules each having 4 transmitter and 4 receiver lanes, were submitted to a life test against MIL-STD-883J, method 1005, cond. D. The test is conducted at a case temperature and at a bias current significantly exceeding the conditions to be set for long-term intra-satellite operation.

In these conditions, 2500 h of accelerated life tests was calculated to be the minimal requirement to ensure 20 years of reliable 11.5 Gbps per lane performance in typical conditions for GEO intra-satellite communications applications.

Even after 3000 h, no performance degradation outside measurement uncertaintywas observed on any lane of any of the SpaceABLE units under test. The life test will continue until 4000 h is reached, around November 30^th. Reaching 4000 h of accelerated life test will offer the long-term reliability margin and confidence level space applications engineers are looking for.

A family of proven rugged transceivers

This result represents one more accomplishment in the list of long-term reliability milestones reached by Reflex Photonics’ LightABLE and SpaceABLE transceiver products family and confirm their suitability for deployment in harsh environments, such as GEO space applications. The SpaceABLE products are radiation-resistant multilane opto-electronics interconnects operating at up to 10.3125 Gbps per lane and offering the following features:

• Small SWaP
• Operation over a large temperature range (the maximum range being −40°C to 100°C)
• Cold start at −57°C
• Storage temperature from −57°C to 125°C.

The SpaceABLE is offered as a surface mount or pluggable module or can use an LGA (land grid array) interposer. It will sustain high-speed digital communication links of more than 100 m in length.

Reflex Photonics’ Senior Technical Advisor, Jocelyn Lauzon comments:

These life test results exceed our expectations, since our evaluation of critical opto-electronic components included in our fiber optic transceiver circuits suggested a small and manageable performance degradation after 2500 h. Observing no significant performance degradation as we are, indicates that our circuit design that has already proven its mechanical and radiation robustness also ensures the best possible operation conditions to optimize long-term performances. Reflex’ team of design engineer should be very proud of this major accomplishment.

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