Optically Powered, Optoelectronic Spatial Light Modulators

摘要

We demonstrate a 1.3 micrometer wavelength optoelectronic hybrid/integrated smartpixel receiver/transmitter circuit. The pixel was fabricated in the InP/InGaAsP material system for compatibility with long distance fiber optics communication applications. The input and the output signals are optical, while the processing elements remain electronic. The circuit employs monolithically integrated p-i-n photodiodes and heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT's), along with surface mounted folded cavity surface emitting lasers (FCSEL). The circuit has a bandwidth of 100 Mb/s, an input/output gain of 8, and fan-out of 3. The 'intelligence' of the circuit lies in its switching, amplification low power dissipation, and cascadability (the ability to drive several stages in a multilayer interconnect system). Furthermore, the pixel uses an electrical control to enable or disable the circuit operation. The circuit can be used in a linear or thresholding regime. The sensitivity of the pixel was measured to be -32 dBm at 100 Mb/s as a receiver, giving rise to a switching energy of 14 fJ. With gain and cascadability included, a switching energy of 30 fJ was measured. Both values are the lowest obtained to date for comparable smart pixel technologies.