Optoelectronic-VLSI: Photonics integrated with VLSI circuits

Optoelectronic-VLSI (OE-VLSI) technology represents the intimate integratio n of photonic devices with silicon VLSI electronics. We review the motivati ons and status of emerging OE-VLSI technologies and examine the performance of OE-VLSI technology versus conventional wire-bonded OE packaging, The re sults suggest that OE-VLSI integration offers substantial power and speed i mprovements even when relatively small numbers of photonic devices are driv en with commodity complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor logic technologie s.