<title>Guided wave optoelectronic interconnects: their potential and future trends</title>

Abstract

We present in this paper the research status of polymer-based photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and their applications for VLSI optoelectronic interconnects. Demonstrated features of polymer-based PICs are delineated with GaAs and LiNbO<SUB>3</SUB> integrated photonic devices as references. These unique features, including longer interconnection length, larger phase modulation index, graded-index (GRIN) characteristic, massive fanout capability and cost- effectiveness, make the polymer-based PICs very attractive for an optoelectronically interconnected VLSI system. The usefulness of polymer-based PICs for VLSI optoelectronic interconnects relies on not only the system requirements but also the processing temperatures over which polymer-based photonic devices are fabricated and then assembled. Optical bus design rules are provided in this paper to optimize the interconnection length while maintaining low cross talk and maximum bus packing density. Optoelectronically interconnected inter-MCM (multi-chip module) and intra-MCM will be the future research trend of optoelectronic interconnects. Intra-board and backplane optoelectronic interconnects represent the major milestones for the realization of these schemes.