Optical configuration of an 11,424 gate-count dynamic optically reconfigurable gate array using a VCSEL

Recently, to realize large real-time systems, demands for fast computation on large VLSI have continued to increase. An optically reconfigurable gate array has been developed to realize large virtual gates. As part of that research effort, the world´s largest 11,424 gate-count dynamic optically reconfigurable gate array VLSI chip, which is based on a concept using junction capacitance of photodiodes as configuration memory, has been fabricated. The size and process of the VLSI chip are, respectively, a 96.04 mm² and a 0.35 mum-3 metal CMOS process technology. To clarify the availability of the VLSI, this paper presents an experimental result of a long retention time of its photodiode memory architecture.