ELEMENTS OF A HYBRID INTERCONNECTION THEORY

We present a textbooklike treatment of hybrid systems employing both o ptical and electrical interconnections. We investigate how these two d ifferent interconnection media can be used in conjunction to realize a system not possible with any alone. More specifically, we determine t he optimal mix of optical and normally conducting interconnections max imizing a given figure-of-merit function. We find that optical interco nnections have relatively little to offer if the optical paths are con strained to lie on a plane (such as in an integrated optics system). H owever, if optical paths are permitted to leave the plane, they may en able considerable increase in performance. In any event the prize in t erms of performance is accompanied by a penalty in terms of system pow er and/or size.