Radiation Tolerance Qualification Tests of the Final Source Interface Unit for the ALICE Experiment

The ALICE Detector Data Link (DDL) is a high-speed optical link designed to interface the readout electronics of ALICE sub-detectors to the DAQ computers. The Source Interface Unit (SIU) of the DDL will operate in radiation environment. Previous tests showed that a configuration loss of SRAM-based FPGA devices may happen and the frequency of undetected data errors in the FPGA user memory area is also not acceptable. Therefore, we redesigned the SIU card using another FPGA based on flash technology. In order to detect bit errors in the user memory we added parity check logic to the design. The new SIU has been extensively tested using neutron and proton irradiation to verify its radiation tolerance. In this paper we summarize the design changes, introduce the final design, and the results of the radiation tolerance measurements on the final card.