Thermal Aware Design Method for VCSEL-Based On-Chip Optical Interconnect

Abstract: Optical Network-on-Chip (ONoC) is an emerging technology considered as one of the key solutions for future generation on-chip interconnects. However, silicon photonic devices in ONoC are highly sensitive to temperature variation, which leads to a lower efficiency of Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Lasers (VCSELs), a resonant wavelength shift of Microring Resonators (MR), and results in a lower Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR). In this paper, we propose a methodology enabling thermal-aware design for optical interconnects relying on CMOS-compatible VCSEL. Thermal simulations allow designing ONoC interfaces with low gradient temperature and analytical models allow evaluating the SNR.