Light Channel 5 Gb/s Optoelectronic TDM (Time Division Multiplexing)

摘要

An 8:1, 5 Gb/s, time division multiplexer has been implemented using optoelectronic or metal-semiconductor-metal switches for sampling. The device was fabricated on InP and the switches activated via optical fiber delay lines by pulses from a GaAlAs laser diode array. This device concept is applicable to chip and to board level computing multiplexing. Time division multiplexing (TDM), serializing parallel data for high speed transmission, is an important element in most concepts and implementations in computer networking as well as other areas of communications. An optoelectronic TDM (OE-TDM) approach(1) is advantageous in speed, power, and signal-control isolation. It was conceived initially to offer serial transmission off VLSI chips and recently has shown promise as a stand alone multiplexing technique. We report an improved multiplexer in InP giving an 8:1 multiplex ratio, a 26 dB signal-to-noise ratio, and a 5 Gb/s serial data rate while using a realistic parallel data level of 2 volts instead of the earlier 15 V(1). Keywords: Gallium arsenide, Silicon, Optics, Integration, Data transmission systems, Computer networks. (JES)