Integrated optoelectronic transmitter and receiver multi-chip modules for three-dimensional chip-level micro-optical interconnects

We demonstrate a chip-scale micro-optical interconnect. The prototype system for this demonstration consists of optoelectronic transmitter and receiver multichip modules. A diffractive optical element (DOE) is used for optically interconnecting the multichip modules and in establishing a point-to-point link. The link length, as measured from the optical source of the transmitter to the detector plane of the receiver, is only 2.332 mm. The transmitter and receiver module dimensions as well as the integrated system volume are comparable to very large scale integration (VLSI). The design, fabrication, integration of this system, and experimental results are presented.