A three-dimensional high-throughput architecture using through-wafer optical interconnect

This paper presents a three-dimensional, highly parallel, optically interconnected system to process high-throughput stream data such as images. The vertical optical interconnections are realized using. Integrated optoelectronic devices operating at wavelengths to which silicon is transparent. These through-wafer optical signals are used to vertically optically interconnect stacked silicon circuits. The thin film optoelectronic devices are bonded directly to the stacked layers of silicon circuitry to realize self-contained vertical optical interconnections. Each integrated circuit layer contains analog interface circuitry, namely, detector amplifier and emitter driver circuitry, and digital circuitry for the network and/or processor, all of which are fabricated using a standard silicon integrated circuit foundry. These silicon circuits are post processed to integrate the thin film optoelectronics using standard, low cost, high yield microfabrication techniques. The three-dimensionally integrated architectures described herein are a network and a processor. The network has been designed to meet off-chip I/O using a new offset cube topology coupled with naming and renting schemes. The performance of this network is comparable to that of a three-dimensional mesh. The processing architecture has been defined to minimize overhead for basic parallel operations. The system goal for this research is to develop an integrated processing node for high-throughput, low-memory applications. >