Emerging opportunities for applying COTS optoelectronics in avionics fiber-optic networks

Current avionics fiber-optic networks utilize light-emitting diode (LED)-ba sed transmitter optical sources owing to their established high reliability over the commercial and military avionics temperature regimes. One shortco ming of LED-based transmitters is the limited modulation speed and low outp ut power of the LED devices. Recently published high temperature reliabilit y data on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) diode lasers appears promising fo r realizing higher speed(i.e. > 1 Gb/s) optical interconnects in avionics s ystems. Although ruggedized hermetic packaging has been developed for avion ics optoelectronic modules, the application of newer generation commercial sector packaging to reduce optoelectronic module production costs is under examination. 'Glob-top' sealed chip-on-board, passive alignment silicon mic ro-optical bench, and non-hennetic laser and detector packaging technologie s offer potential cost-reductions in avionics optoelectronic modules. Howev er, the reliability of these new laser sources and packaging options has ye t to be thoroughly evaluated for the harsh commercial and military avionics environment. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.