Recent analysis has shown that the i/o requirements of integrated circuits may soon exceed 1 Tbit/s. Transmission of such high data rates by conventional wires is predicted to be fundamentally limited over relatively short distances of the order of centimentres. One possible approach to this problem is to exploit the high space-bandwidth potential of free-space optical interconnects in combination with optoelectronic-VLSI (OE-VLSI) components - surface normal optoelectronic devices integrated with silicon VLSI. A major focus of our work in this area is as part of a collaborative European Commission funded project to construct a packet-switching matrix-matrix optoelectronic crossbar interconnect which aims to demonstrate an internal aggregate connection bandwidth to a silicon VLSI chip in the region of 1 Terabit/s. The system is described in full elsewhere. In this paper we describe the optical components of this Smart-Pixel Opto-Electronic Connection (SPOEC) demonstrator, their completed design and early test results in advance of full system operation.
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