Title :
Circuits for silicon photonics on a “macrochip”
Author :
Ho, Ron ; Lexau, Jon ; Liu, Frankie ; Patil, Dinesh ; Hopkins, Robert ; Alon, Elad ; Pinckney, Nathaniel ; Amberg, Philip ; Zheng, Xuezhe ; Cunningham, John E. ; Krishnamoorthy, Ashok V.
Author_Institution :
Sun Microsyst. Labs., Menlo Park, CA, USA
Abstract :
Recent advances in silicon photonics bring significant benefits to "macrochip" grids made of arrayed chips. Such configurations have global interconnects long enough to benefit from the high speed, low energy, and high bandwidth density of optics. In this paper we consider the constraints of large macrochip systems, and explore modulator drivers and photodetector receivers that match those constraints. We show measured results from a recent 90 nm testchip intended to mate with optical components.
Keywords :
CMOS integrated circuits; VLSI; driver circuits; integrated circuit interconnections; integrated optoelectronics; modulators; optical interconnections; optical receivers; photodetectors; silicon; CMOS circuits; Si; VLSI; electrical interconnect; global interconnects; macrochip grids; modulator drivers; optical interconnect; photodetector receivers; silicon photonics; size 90 nm; Bandwidth; High speed optical techniques; Integrated circuit interconnections; Optical interconnections; Optical modulation; Optical receivers; Photodetectors; Photonics; Semiconductor device measurement; Silicon;
Conference_Titel :
Solid-State Circuits Conference, 2009. A-SSCC 2009. IEEE Asian
Conference_Location :
Taipei
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-4433-5
Electronic_ISBN :
978-1-4244-4434-2
DOI :
10.1109/ASSCC.2009.5357232