A 16,000-gate-count optically reconfigurable gate array in a standard 0.35 μm CMOS technology

Up to now, we have fabricated 68-gate-count optically reconfigurable gate arrays (ORGA), the reconfiguration period of which has been confirmed as less than 10 ns. As the next step, we have begun development of high-gate-count ORGA. The new ORGA-VLSI chip can achieve a 16000-gate-count through reduction of photodiode size, photodiode spacing, and through introduction of a small optical reconfiguration circuit, that do not exceed the resolution of available optical components. This paper presents the new design of a 16000-gate-count ORGA using a standard 0.35 μm 3-metal CMOS process technology. In addition, photodiode characteristics are extracted from experimental results using an estimation chip and an evaluation of optical reconfiguration circuits using HSPICE simulation.