A Review of IC Drivers for VCSELs in Datacom Applications
Journal article, 2024
Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are an attractive choice for short-range optical interconnects (OIs) in datacom applications. As the limited bandwidth of VCSEL is the major obstacle to achieve higher data rates in these optical systems, significant effort has been made to develop efficient VCSEL drivers to increase data rate while consuming less power. We review the current state of the art in VCSEL driver design, including choices of semiconductor technology, modulation format, VCSEL configuration, and pre-emphasis techniques, with an emphasis on the challenges associated with VCSEL bandwidth limitations, nonlinearities, and thermal behavior. We illustrate the choices with simulations using a physics-based VCSEL model.
Modulation
Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers
short-range optical interconnect (OI)
Optical reflection
Integrated optics
VCSEL configuration
High-speed optical techniques
Photonics
VCSEL drivers
vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs)
Modulation format
temperature compensation
Bandwidth
pre-emphasis
Author
Siavash Mowlavi
Embedded Electronics Systems and Computer Graphics
Stavros Giannakopoulos
Embedded Electronics Systems and Computer Graphics
Alexander Grabowski
Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Photonics
Lars Svensson
Embedded Electronics Systems and Computer Graphics
IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems
1063-8210 (ISSN) 15579999 (eISSN)
Vol. 32 1 42-54Subject Categories
Telecommunications
Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics
Communication Systems
DOI
10.1109/TVLSI.2023.3326876