
254 Communication Architectures for SoC
7.2 Photonic Components for On-Chip Optical
Interconnects
7.2.1 Introduction
There are several models and designs for an optical interconnection. Each of
these alternatives has its advantages and disadvantages. However, the com-
monstructureforanopticallinkiscomposedofanoptical transmitter,
a channel that transfers photons from one point to other or from one chip
to other chip and finally an optical receiver.Thesethreeelementscanbe
included or not into the digital logic chip. The first case is known as Inte-
grated Architecture [1] and it implies that the optical devices are in the chip
in such a way that any comm ...