Epitaxy-on-electronics technology for monolithic optoelectronic integration: foundations, development, and status

Optoelectronic very large scale integrated (OE-VLSI) circuits are a basic: component of optical interconnects proposed to overcome the limitations of high-speed electrical interconnects. Epitaxy-on-electronics (EoE), a monolithic integration technology capable of combining thousands of optoelectronic devices with VLSI-complexity GaAs Electronics, is reviewed. The fundamental assumptions on which the EoE technology is founded are explained and the development of the EoE integration process is reviewed. Then, the recently completed OPTOCHIP research foundry project, which made LED-based optoelectronic integrated circuits (OEICs) available to optical interconnect researchers, is described. Finally, integrated LED, photodetector, and circuit characterization results are detailed. These results show the utility of EoE OEICs in implementing optical interconnect architectures and point out current performance limitations. (C) 1998 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. [S0091-3286(98)01012-5].