Performance comparison of global clock distribution networks on multichip modules based on electrical and optical interconnect technologies

A high-speed low-skew system clock distribution network on a multichip module (MCM) is considered in systems perspective using system bandwidth, allowable system switching energy, number of clock signal fanout nodes supported, and the flexibility of the network structure to accommodate placement and routing requirements of various integrated circuits on MCM. Electrical H-tree networks modeled as lossless transmission lines are designed and evaluated along with guided wave optical H-tree networks. System performance analysis of optical and electrical H-tree networks on MCM suggests that optical H-tree clock distribution network has a superior capability compared to the electrical one by providing larger bandwidth, larger fanout, smaller system switching energy, and a flexible network configuration.