Scaling limits for optical interconnects: Directly modulated versus externally modulated links

Author

Dorren, H.J.S. ; Duan, P. ; Raz, O. ; Luijten, R.P.

Author_Institution

COBRA, Eindhoven Univ. of Technol., Eindhoven, Netherlands

fYear

2011

fDate

26-30 June 2011

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

5

Abstract

We establish a lower bound on the energy-per-bit required for transmitting information using a photonic channel. We include in our analysis the energy required to convert information from the electronic to the photonic domain and back. We investigate links that employ a directly modulated laser as well as an external modulator. We show that the power dissipation of the channel also imposes a bound on the bandwidth density.

Keywords

bandwidth allocation; data communication; driver circuits; integrated optoelectronics; optical interconnections; optical links; optical modulation; optical receivers; surface emitting lasers; VCSEL; bandwidth density; directly modulated laser; directly modulated links; driver circuits; electronic domain; energy-per-bit; external modulator; externally modulated links; information transmission; optical interconnects; photonic channel; photonic domain; power dissipation; receiver sensitivity; Bandwidth; Integrated circuit interconnections; Modulation; Optical interconnections; Photonics; Power dissipation; Receivers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Transparent Optical Networks (ICTON), 2011 13th International Conference on

Conference_Location

Stockholm

ISSN

2161-2056

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-0881-7

Electronic_ISBN

2161-2056

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICTON.2011.5970798

Filename

5970798