Performance Analysis of Vertical and Horizontal Transmitter Array Modules Using Short- and Long-Wavelength VCSELS for Optical Interconnects

For short- and long-wavelength vertical surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), performances of optical transmitter array modules with vertically and horizontally packaged structures are analyzed for application to on-board optical interconnection. 850 and 1310 nm wavelengths are selected for the short- and long-wavelength light sources. For each wavelength, top- and bottom-emitting VCSELs are used to compare the performances of four different module structures: bottom-emitting types of 850 and 1310 nm for the vertical modules, and top-emitting types of 850 and 1310 nm for the horizontal modules. The horizontal transmitter modules are packaged using the conventional wire-bonding technology for the interconnect between VCSEL and driver chips while the vertical modules are packaged using the flip-chip-bonding technology. Signal crosstalk is investigated using 1 × 4 VCSEL array chips, which are driven using the same Si-CMOS circuits designed for 5 Gb/s operation. The vertical modules show lower crosstalk than the horizontal modules. When the gap distance between the VCSEL aperture and the waveguide input port increases up to 500 μm for each module, the crosstalk increases in a range -58 to -37 dB. The 3-dB bandwidth performances are sensitively degraded in a range 4.6-2.0 GHz when the gap distance increases. In the crosstalk, the 1310-nm vertical module shows the best performance, while in the 3-dB bandwidth, the 850-nm horizontal module shows the best performance. The four modules shows clear eye openings at 2.5 Gb/s with bit error rate <; 10^-12 and can be used for on-board optical interconnections.