Abstract:
A silicon-photonic link has been monolithically-integrated in a bulk CMOS process for the first time. Deep-trench isolation enables polySi waveguide integration. PolySi resonant detectors remove the need for Ge integration. Split-diode design enables half-rate receivers, mitigating transistor speed limitations. An on-chip feedback loop locks the resonant defect detector to the laser wavelength, combating thermal upset. The 5 m optical link achieves 5 Gb/s at 3 pJ/b electrical and 13 pJ/b optical energy, in 0.18 μm (100 ps FO4) bulk CMOS memory periphery process.
Authors:
C. Sun, M. Georgas, J. S. Orcutt, B. R. Moss, Y-H. Chen, J. Shainline, M. Wade, K. Mehta, K. Nammari, E. Timurdogan, D. Miller, O. Tehar-Zahav, Z. Sternberg, J. C. Leu, J. Chong, R. Bafrali, G. Sandhu, M. Watts, R. Meade, M. A. Popovic, R. J. Ram, V. Stojanovic
Published in: 2014 Symposium on VLSI Circuits Digest of Technical Papers
