Analysis of variation in on-chip waveguide distribution schemes and optical receiver circuits

Recently, optical interconnect has emerged as a possible alternative to electrical interconnect at chip-to-chip and on-chip length scales because of its potential to overcome power, delay, and bandwidth limitations of traditional electrical interconnect. This thesis examines the issues of variation involved in the implementation of a robust on-chip optical signal distribution network. First, the variation within the on-chip waveguide network is analyzed in terms of susceptibility to lithographic uncertainties and refractive index variations. Then, the robustness of an ultrashort pulse-based receiver circuit architecture is analyzed. Some variation sources considered are optical input power variation, load capacitance variation, parasitic capacitive coupling, and power supply noise. Simulation results show that, for both the passive waveguide network and the optical receiver circuit, variation can result in clock skew and jitter, which limit the frequencies at which the distribution network can operate. The impact of technology scaling on the optical receiver circuit architecture is assessed with respect to variation. The robustness of the optical network is compared with that of an all-electrical signal distribution network.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Balakrishnan, Karthik, Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Duane S. Boning.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/37936

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/37936