Optical interconnects based on two-dimensional VCSEL arrays

Free space optical interconnects offer an exciting alternative to conventional packaging for electronic systems which uses planar board and backplane structures. The alternative, which shall be called 3D packaging, involves using the space perpendicular to the processing planes for free-space optical beams that transport the data between the planes. 3D packaging is very appealing for tightly-coupled fine-grained parallel computing where the need for massive numbers of interconnections is severely taxing the capabilities of the planar structures. This paper describes an effort to develop the enabling technologies for these 3D systems, and to demonstrate a functional computer based on this technology. The approach is to realize the optical interconnections through the use of two-dimensional optoelectronic (smart pixel) arrays based on vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser arrays