Optical and Electrical Interconnect Partition Length Based on Chip-to-Chip Bandwidth Maximization

Abstract

The lengths beyond which board-level optical waveguides are capable of transferring a larger number of bits per second than electrical interconnects are found for various technology generations. As technology scales from the 130-nm technology node to the 45-nm technology node, the partition length falls from 29 to 8.3 cm due to seven times larger driver-switching frequency and 40% finer waveguide pitches.