Gallium arsenide and silicon for optical electronics: applications and technology trade-offs

Compound semiconductor technology has enjoyed astonishing successes recently, and is quickly finding its way into the consumer area. But silicon bipolar technology stands newly rejuvenated, while CMOS continues to improve its performance and consume ever more market share. Nowhere is this contest more clearly evident than in optical communications. Here applications demand performance ranging from a few hundreds of Megahertz to multi-Gigahertz, from circuits containing anywhere from tens to tens of thousands of devices. This talk reviews the high performance electronics found in optical communication applications from a technology standpoint, illustrating merits, demerits and market trends for these competing, yet often complementary IC technologies