Free-space optics for 3D multi-chip environment

The 3D-OESP consortium is a government-industry-university collaboration dedicated to the development of the technologies required to integrate stacked silicon chips with optoelectronic devices for high-performance computing and switching applications. By utilizing the combined strengths of 3D chip packaging and optoelectronic array interconnect technologies, it is possible to bring a low-power ultra-compact hardware solution to systems requiring fast processing and handling of large data arrays. We believe that, providing optoelectronic I/O to 3D chip stacks using VCSEL arrays with associated drivers, specially designed optical receivers, and micro-optics to direct the optical signals provide the most efficient way to communicate between the stacks. By integrating these components with a set of packaging techniques ranging from silicon micro-bench to plastic molded lenses, we are presently engaged in demonstrating the practical superiority of this approach in terms of system speed, power and volume metrics. We address various aspects of this approach that are being explored within the 3D-OESP consortium.