Technologies now exist for implementing dense surface-normal optical interconnections for silicon CMOS VLSI using hybrid integration techniques. The critical factors in determining the performance of the resulting photonic chip are the yield on the transceiver device arrays, the sensitivity and power dissipation of the receiver and transmitter circuits, and the total optical power budget available. The use of GaAs--AlGaAs multiple-quantum-well p-i-n diodes for on-chip detection and modulation is one effective means of implementing the optoelectronic transceivers. We discuss a potential roadmap for the scaling of this hybrid optoelectronic VLSI technology as CMOS linewidths shrink and the characteristics of the hybrid optoelectronic tranceiver technology improve. An important general conclusion is that, unlike electrical interconnects, such dense optical interconnections directly to an electronic circuit will likely be able to scale in capacity to match the improved performance of futur...

We demonstrate data resynchronization in a multichannel chip-to-chip free-space optical interconnect for complementary metal--oxide--semiconductor (CMOS) using short optical pulses. Operation of the system is shown at speeds of 82 Mb/s per channel, limited by the repetition rate of the mode-locked laser used. We show explicitly the ability to resynchronize parallel channels and eliminate timing fluctuations; we remove up to 3/8 of a bit period of interchannel skew and single channel jitter from the transmitted signals in a complete interconnect link that includes optical transmission, reception, and retransmission of digital data. Index Terms---CMOS integrated circuits, optical interconnections, optical pulses, quantum well devices, skew removal, synchronization, timing jitter, ultrafast optics.

...................................................................................................................................... viii List of publications .......................................................................................................................ix Chapter 1: Introduction..................................................................................................................1 1.1 Scope and overall research contribution..............................................................................1 1.2 Motivation............................................................................................................................2 1.2.1 The interconnect problem .............................................................................................2 1.2.2 Capabilities and limitations of electrical interconnects................................................4 1.2.3 Advantages of optical interconnects ......................................

Abstract—We present the first measurements of opticalelectrical-optical conversion latency in a hybridly-integrated optoelectronic/silicon complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) chip designed for optical interconnection. Using an optical pump-probe technique, we perform precise measurements with picosecond resolution that closely match our simulations. Our findings suggest that optical interconnects have the potential to provide equal or lower latency than on-chip global wires in future CMOS microelectronics. Index Terms—CMOS integrated circuits, delay estimation, optical interconnections, ultrafast optics. I.