VSTEP Technology for Optical Interconnections,

Abstract

Optical interconnections have been expected to offer several advantages over conventional electronic interconnections. One of the most attractive advantages is the multi-channel capability. To fully utilize the advantage, parallel configuration is desirable, where two-dimensional array devices play an important role. If the device has some functions such as switching and memory, it will make the interconnections more attractive and flexible. VSTEP (Vertical to Surface Transmission Electro-Photonic device) has been studied to realize such an optical functional devices. In this paper, recent advances in VSTEP will be reviewed. A basic concept of VSTEPs is that electronic non-linearity is effectively combined with optical input/output interfaces in a device level. The electronic non-linearity will provide us a variety of functional operations with lower power consumption and higher uniformity compared with pure photonic non-linearity will do. These features are fairly important for large scale integration. In VSTEPs developed so far, a pnpn thyristor was utilized to attain the electronic non-linearity.

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 1992
Accession Number
ADP008120

Entities

People

  • Kenichi Kasahara
  • Kohroh Kobayashi

Organizations

  • NEC

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Energy Consumption
  • Large Scale Integration
  • Linearity
  • Optical Equipment
  • Optical Interconnects
  • Photonic Devices
  • Photonics
  • Switching
  • Thyristors
  • Two Dimensional

Readers

  • Electronics Engineering
  • Materials Science.
  • Parallel and Distributed Computing.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics