High Speed Switches for Reconfigurable Optical Logic Arrays and Optical Interconnections
Abstract
This program began with the objective of developing a novel optical interconnect technology that would provide parallel optical interconnections between electronic processing in a dynamically reconfigurable manner. The goal was to develop a switching fabric consisting of integrated optoelectronic switch arrays that offer a very compact, very-high-information-throughout optical interconnect architecture. The technology we had chosen was based on the monolithic integration of VCSELs with other photonic and electronic technologies, including heterojunction HPTs and photothyristors, PIN and MSM photodiodes, and heterojunction bipolar HBTs. We have played a leading role in the development of monolithic OEIC technology based on VCSELs, as well as advancing the state-of-the-art in VCSEL technology itself. We have developed an optical interconnect architecture and a high-speed OEIC switching technology that can provide reconfigurable interconnections between electronic processors, allowing then to communicate through a network of integrated optoelectronic transceivers and compact, monolithic space-division-multiplexed switches that provide an optical link to other nodes and electrical access to each processor These reconfigurable binary HPT/VCSEL switches can detect, regenerate and spatially reroute optical data, and can be programmed by simple voltages to perform different optical routing, fanout and logic functions. Arrays of switches with high optical gain were optically cascaded to form a multistage optical switching network that provide multipoint interconnections between nodes, through which multiple data channels can be routed in parallel without intermediate OE signal conversion. The functional capabilities of the reconfigurable optical switching fabric have been demonstrated at a data rate of >500 Mb/s.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 08, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADA349099
Entities
People
- Julian Cheng
Organizations
- University of New Mexico