Prospects and challenges for chip-level optical interconnects

摘要

Increasing speed and functionality in ICs place severe demands on current interconnects in terms of speed (bandwidth), power, and density. Innovations in conventional conductors and insulators, along with traditional device scaling, will soon fail to satisfy performance requirements. New solutions - three-dimensional device architectures, coplanar waveguides, radio-frequency, and optical interconnects (OI) - are needed. OIs could be beneficial in short-scale IC applications, due to wide bandwidth, reduced loss, and low crosstalk. In particular, the optical telecom single-channel bandwidth is 40Gbit/sec, far above that in electrical wires. In recent years, OIs have witnessed a desirable length reduction from intercontinental telecommunications to local area networks and individual computer systems. Further miniaturization could lead to OI incorporation into Si ICs.