DESIGN AND EVALUATION OF A PHOTONIC FFT PROCESSOR

We describe the design of a high-performance chipset for computing 1-D complex fast Fourier transforms (FFT), Our chip technology is based o n flip-chip integration of submicrometer CMOS ICs with GaAs chips cont aining 2-D arrays of multiple-quantum wells (MQW) diode optical receiv ers and transmitters. Our system technology is based on free-space opt ical interconnection. Compared to an electronic implementation, the pr oposed design offers increased performance and a reduced chip count, S ince our design uses direct, one-to-one interconnections between chips , it is compatible with a number of emerging three-dimensional free-sp ace optoelectronic packaging technologies. (C) 1997 Academic Press.