Abstract

Optical interconnects have a number of advantages over electrical interconnects such as lower energy dissipation, absence of cross-coupling and electromigration. Their impending use in future high-speed computing and communication systems underscores the need for inexpensive, reliable optical transmitters and receivers. Silicon-based infrared detector arrays and monolithic optoelectronic receivers compatible with 1-D optical data link (1D-ODL) technology have a broad range of uses in high-speed computing and switching systems and in commercial and military aviation, SiGe alloys extend the long wavelength limit of optical absorption in silicon and can also be used to form integrated waveguides,' These properties can be utilized in waveguide p-i-n photodetectors in which light propagates normal to the direction of current flow allowing independent optimization of intrinsic transit time and absorption volume.^2,3

© 1992 Optical Society of America