DIGITAL FREE-SPACE OPTICAL INTERCONNECTIONS - A COMPARISON OF TRANSMITTER TECHNOLOGIES

We investigate the performance of free-space optical interconnection s ystems at the technology level. Specifically, three optical transmitte r technologies, lead-lanthanum-zirconate-titanate and multiple-quantum -well modulators and vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers, are eval uated. System performance is measured in terms of the achievable areal data throughput and the energy required per transmitted bit. It is sh own that lead-lanthanum-zirconate-titanate modulator and vertical-cavi ty surface-emitting laser technologies are well suited for application s in which a large fan-out per transmitter is required but the total n umber of transmitters is relatively small. Multiple-quantum-well modul ators, however, are good candidates for applications in which many tra nsmitters with a limited fan-out are needed.