On-Chip Optical Interconnect Roadmap: Challenges and Critical Directions

Abstract

Intrachip optical interconnects (OIs) have the potential to outperform electrical wires and to ultimately solve the communication bottleneck in high-performance integrated circuits. Performance targets and critical directions for ICs progress are yet to be fully explored. In this paper, the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) is used as a reference to explore the requirements that silicon-based ICs must satisfy to successfully outperform copper electrical interconnects (IEs). Considering the state-of-the-art devices, these requirements are extended to specific IC components