Optoelectronic-VLSI: direct attachment of photonic devices to silicon VLSI circuits

Summary form only given. The goal of OE-VLSI technology is to provide optical interconnects directly to CMOS circuits, thereby harnessing the full processing power of silicon VLSI by solving the electrical interconnection problem where it is most relevant. The technology can be used as a replacement for conventional chip and board-level interconnect, and can also provide new packaging solutions from a chip directly to multiple boards/frames of electronic equipment, or directly from sensors or memory banks to the chip. It is anticipated that the availability of such a technology will allow the production of systems that are competitive, on a cost-per-performance basis, with all-electronic solutions. We describe our work towards the development of a manufacturable OE-VLSI technology, and its applications to new classes of switching and processing systems