An all-silicon optical PC-to-PC link utilizing USB

Marius E. Goosen; Antonie C. Alberts; Petrus J. Venter; Monuko du Plessis; Pieter Rademeyer

doi:10.1117/12.2004819

27 February 2013 An all-silicon optical PC-to-PC link utilizing USB

Marius E. Goosen, Antonie C. Alberts, Petrus J. Venter, Monuko du Plessis, Pieter Rademeyer

Proceedings Volume 8630, Optoelectronic Interconnects XIII; 86300K (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2004819
Event: SPIE OPTO, 2013, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

An integrated silicon light source still remains the Holy Grail for integrated optical communication systems. Hot carrier luminescent light sources provide a way to create light in a standard CMOS process, potentially enabling cost effective optical communication between CMOS integrated circuits. In this paper we present a 1 Mb/s integrated silicon optical link for information transfer, targeting a real-world integrated solution by connecting two PCs via a USB port while transferring data optically between the devices. This realization represents the first optical communication product prototype utilizing a CMOS light emitter. The silicon light sources which are implemented in a standard 0.35 μm CMOS technology are electrically modulated and detected using a commercial silicon avalanche photodiode. Data rates exceeding 10 Mb/s using silicon light sources have previously been demonstrated using raw bit streams. In this work data is sent in two half duplex streams accompanied with the separate transmission of a clock. Such an optical communication system could find application in high noise environments where data fidelity, range and cost are a determining factor.

Citation Download Citation

Marius E. Goosen, Antonie C. Alberts, Petrus J. Venter, Monuko du Plessis, and Pieter Rademeyer "An all-silicon optical PC-to-PC link utilizing USB", Proc. SPIE 8630, Optoelectronic Interconnects XIII, 86300K (27 February 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2004819

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