VCSEL/MSM detector smart pixel arrays

A smart pixel module consisting of two-dimensional arrays of electronic logic elements, drive and receive electronics, optical sources, optical detectors, and lenses for conditioning the optical beams, provides the building block for 3D optically interconnected systems. In order to justify the development of a new technology such as smart pixels, one needs to provide a capability significantly beyond that projected for shop scale packages, for instance, which implies optical device array sizes of thousands of devices. In addition, the integration of optoelectronic devices and optical components must be done very cost effectively, which implies monolithic or heterogeneous integration techniques.