ABSTRACT
I. INTRODUCTION As electronic and optical data processing circuits approach multigigahertz operation rates, multigigahertz communication between these processing circuits becomes essential. This communication includes chip to chip on a common multichip module (MCM), MCM to MCM on a common board, and board to board through a common back plane. The data rate at which communication through electrical interconnects can be transmitted is limited to the low gigahertz region, unless one is willing to expend large amounts of power. Electrical wires and striplines have frequency-dependent dissipative losses due to conductive and dielectric properties and frequency-dependent parasitic coupling losses due to radiative and surface wave propagation properties [1]. The higher the frequency, the higher the losses. This is where optics can help provide solutions. Optical interconnects can transmit data at optical frequencies with orders of magnitude lower losses than their electrical counterparts. The power requirements for optical and electrical interconnects versus data rate are illustrated in Fig. 1.
