THE APPLICATION OF OPTOELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGIES TO HIGH-PERFORMANCE ELECTRONIC PROCESSOR INTERCONNECTS

The application of optoelectronic technologies and data transmission t echniques, developed initially for the telecommunications market, to e lectronic processor systems offers to overcome interconnect limitation s facing designers of these high performance systems. Optical intercon nects offer increased data rates, low power consumption, compact size and inherent freedom from the effects of mutual coupling, line capacit ance, EMI and topological constraints. This paper describes our invest igation of two of the key technologies required for the practical impl ementation of optical interconnections, namely optoelectronic interfac e components (the optical bond pads), and the associated hybrid alignm ent techniques used in their assembly.