Free-space optical interconnection scheme.

As integrated circuit linewidths are reduced, single chip system functionality and speed increase. Conventional electronic chip input/output does not scale with this trend: bonding pad sizes and off-chip capacitive loads remain essentially constant. The shortage of chip interconnect capability has become critical. Integrated free-space optical interconnect has the potential to overcome this problem by providing a large number of high speed connections between chips. This paper describes methods for performing free-space intermodule optical interconnections within a digital electronic computer utilizing large arrays of light beams. A particular architecture and its ongoing implementation with integrated components are discussed.

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