Fanout Analysis of a Low-Skew Clock Distribution Network with Optical Amplifiers

Abstract

Optimization of the performance of a high­speed synchronous digital system requires tight control of the timing skew within a clock distribution network (CDN). Techniques for distributing the optical clock signals in a single-stage CDN have been suggested in [1,2] to reduce the timing skew, and the fanout is found to be much larger than that obtained from an electronic CDN. In this paper, we investigate the enhancement of fanout when optical amplifiers, which could either be semiconductor laser amplifiers [3] or fiber amplifiers [4], are introduced in a CDN.