Epitaxy-on-electronics technology for monolithic optoelectronic integration: foundations, development, and status

Optoelectronic very large scale integrated (OE-VLSI) circuits are a basic: component of optical interconnects proposed to overcome the limitations of high-speed electrical interconnects. Epitaxy-on-electronics (EoE), a monoli thic integration technology capable of combining thousands of optoelectroni c devices with VLSI-complexity GaAs Electronics, is reviewed. The fundament al assumptions on which the EoE technology is founded are explained and the development of the EoE integration process is reviewed. Then, the recently completed OPTOCHIP research foundry project, which made LED-based optoelec tronic integrated circuits (OEICs) available to optical interconnect resear chers, is described. Finally, integrated LED, photodetector, and circuit ch aracterization results are detailed. These results show the utility of EoE OEICs in implementing optical interconnect architectures and point out curr ent performance limitations. (C) 1998 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentat ion Engineers. [S0091-3286(98)01012-5].