Abstract

Physical effects are present in high-performance systems that limit system packaging and architecture. For example, the finite capabilities of heat dissipation technology restrict the number of simultaneously switching elements, their density and switching speed for optoelectronic devices. In addition, the self-inductance of power and ground connectors between levels of packaging also limit the number of devices switching simultaneously. This paper examines the impact of these two effects for optoelectronic integrated circuits (OEIC). For high-speed optical I/O the power and ground pin-out can be comparable with the number of optical channels: hence, optical interconnects do not necessarily solve the package pin-out problem. Furthermore, these effects mandate large-grained smart pixels for high-bandwidth interchip communication.

© 1993 Optical Society of America