| The bandwidth bottleneck present in the access level of optical networks stimulated research, leading to novel topologies, including passive optical networks. In parallel, the increasing processing power of digital systems led to a similar bottleneck in chip-to-chip and board-to-board communications. Guided-wave optical interconnection on printed-circuit boards is viewed as a potential solution.;Experimental results presented in this thesis are in good agreement with simulations. An errorless data rate of 3.125Gbps is achieved for a total power consumption of 18.35mW, at an average optical output power of 2mW. An error-corrected channel using the proposed optical transmitter can operate at 5Gbps.;This thesis outlines the design, implementation, and testing of a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL)-based optical transmitter in 0.18μm CMOS usable for both applications. Optical transmitter architectures are reviewed and a suitable topology is proposed. The implementation includes an original dual power-rail layout for reduced power consumption. A detailed bias-dependent VCSEL model is developed from experimental data. |
