Optical Interconnect Technology; Photons Based Signal Communication

With the scaling of technology towards nanometer regime interconnection between different components, devices and circuits has become the main performance bottleneck. Radical alternatives beyond the boundary of traditional metal interconnect need to be developed to support the signal communication in very high-speed circuits. Optical interconnect is one possible option, which introduces the concept of photon based communication in integrated circuits. This paper surveys the limitations of traditional interconnects, and the prospects and challenges of optical interconnect. It also explores various other future interconnect techniques like 3D-interconnect, RF or wireless interconnect, and makes a comparison with the optical interconnect to find the best possible interconnection that can be used at nanometer level and which helps to achieve the 100 GHz frequency of operation land mark