Optical Interconnection Network Co-Integration: The Potential of Optical Polymers

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe explosive growth under way in the performance of digital electronic systems is directly traceable to the impact of Si MOS device scaling and its accompanying increase in functionality at the chip level. The increasing data rates and chip I/O that have accompanied this scaling have driven the evolution of both system architectures and the interconnection and packaging technologies (i.e. chip carriers, printed circuit boards, bus structures) that support this CMOS functionality and dominate overall system volume. The further scaling of CMOS technology towards 0.1 – 2.5μm minimum gate lengths coupled with modest increases in chip size (i.e. 2–4 cm), promise upwards of a 100 fold increase in chip-level complexity. The resulting emergence of Ultra Large Scale Integrated (ULSI) processor array chips and wafer-scale memory (solid state disks) hold the potential for extremely compact distributed computing systems. Through a continuation of the evolutionary trends of system scaling, application of chip level process technology to higher system levels, and mixed technology integration (e.g. BiCMOS); present advanced packaging technologies based upon Multi-Chip Modules (MCM) will mature into hybrid wafer-level three-dimensional silicon systems allowing burdensome driver and communication control functions now designed at the chip level to move off chip into the active silicon interconnection substrate where network transmission and control can both be implemented. Realization of the performance potential of these silicon ULSI systems will largely depend on the successful implementation of this wafer-level communication network linking the high-density of processing nodes. The role that any advanced technology (i.e. high-speed normal electronic, superconducting, optical) will serve within this network will be determined by the degree of connectivity it can achieve in this scaled environment and by its ability to benignly coexist with the dominant CMOS technology, the network's physical and functional foundation[l].