Performance Comparison and Overview of Different Approaches for VLSI Optoelectronic Interconnects

Although a great deal of research has been carried out over the last decade in which many different approaches for devising optoelectronic interconnects have been proposed, more detailed analysis of the performance parameters such as power, latency, and area of different optical technologies is yet to be done. Optoelectronics offer potential for new approaches to the production of VLSI interconnects, but previous works have made overly simplified assumptions for optoelectronic interconnections. In this paper, we present a preliminary analysis of the system parameters of different optoelectronic interconnect technologies. Based on our analysis, we conclude that the three-dimensional free-space optoelectronic interconnect network has the best speed area product performance compared with fiber-optical interconnects and optical microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) interconnects. Second, although the optoelectronic interconnect offers higher data rates and less power per bit compared with electronic interconnects, the bipolar encoding scheme on the source plane and the detector plane means that a larger area and volume will be needed.