A simple VCSEL based opto electronic module for optical logic and interface applications

This paper presents the modeling and simulation of an opto electronic module with optical input and output ports for optical logic and interface applications. The system comprises of a VCSEL (Vertical Cavity Semi-conductor Laser), a MSM Photo diode and GaAs MESFETs, capable of providing binary logical functions. The developed system is simulated using VHDL-AMS, a mixed signal simulator to model optical, electrical and thermal aspects of the module. The unit is evaluated for simple inverter, NOR and OR functions. Further, the logic gate performance in terms of switching speed and contrast ratio is also determined.