Performances of photodetectors for ultrawide-band systems are outlined. Among several kinds of long-wavelength photodetectors, the waveguide p-i-n photodetector has achieved the largest bandwidth-efficiency product by using two designs: a multimode waveguide and a mushroom structures. The ultrawide-band high-efficiency operation of this photodiode has enabled the construction of a wide-band receiver opto-electronic integrated circuit and has made possible such novel system applications as 20-Gbit/s optical digital transmission using an Er-doped fiber amplifier and a 72-Gbit/s optoelectronic pulse-pattern generator.

The performance of decision-feedback equalization combined with maximum-likelihood detection (DFE/ML) using the fixed-delay-tree-search/decision feedback (FDTS/DF) algorithm was estimated analytically in terms of the length of the feedback-filter and the depth of the ML-detector. Performance degradation due to error propagation in the feedback-loop and in the ML-detector was taken into account by using a Markov process analysis. It was quantitatively shown that signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) performance in high-density magnetic recording channels can be improved by combining an ML-detector with a feedback-filter and that the error propagation in the DFE channel can be reduced by using an ML-detector. Finally, it was found that near-optimum performance with regard to channel SNR and error propagation can be achieved, over the channel density range from 2 to 3, by increasing the sum of the feedback-filter length and the ML-detector depth to six bits.

Device models for a laser diode, photodetector, MESFET, HEMT, bipolar transistor, diode, and resistor are proposed and are implemented in a commercial mixed-signal simulator along with models for an optical fiber, an external optical modulator, and a pulse pattern generator. The validity of the models is confirmed by comparing simulated and experimental results. The performance of a mixed photonic/electronic circuit, which is determined by a large-signal waveform and the device noises, is estimated by the present analysis method.

In order to investigate the jitter characteristics of PLLs for practical applications, we have developed a computer simulation program of PLL, which can deal with arbitrary patterns both of data and jitters, as well as a conceivable nonlinearity of the circuit performance. We used a time-domain method, namely, we solved the state equation of a charge pump type PLL with a constant time step. The jitter transfer characteristics of a conventional PLL were calculated for periodic input data patterns with sinusoidal jitters. The result agreed fairly well with the corresponding experiments. And we have revealed that an ordinary PD (Phase Detector), which detects the phase difference between input and VCO signals at only rising edges, shows the folded jitter transfer characteristics at the half of the equivalent frequency of the input signal. This folded jitter characteristics increases the total jitter for long successive '1' or '0' data patterns, because of their low equivalent sampling frequency, and might increase the jitter even for the random data patterns. Based on simulation results, we devised an improved phase detector for PLL having a low jitter characteristics. And we also applied the simulation to an FDD (Frequency Difference Detector) type fast pull-in PLL which we have proposed recently, and obtained that the jitter of it was smaller than that of a conventional PLL by 25% for PRBS (pseudo random bit sequence) NRZ code.

Three dimensional (3-D) optics offers potential advantages to the massively-parallel systems over electronics from the view point of information transfer. The purpose of this paper is to survey some aspects of the 3-D optical interconnection technology for the future massively-parallel computing systems. At first, the state-of-art of the current optoelectronic array devices to build the interconnection networks are described, with emphasis on those based on the semiconductor technology. Next, the principles, basic architectures, several examples of the 3-D optical interconnection systems in neural networks and multiprocessor systems are described. Finally, the issues that are needed to be solved for putting such technology into practical use are summarized.

We show the design of the bandwidth and the external quantum efficiency (including the coupling efficency to a single-mode fiber) of p-i-n photodetectors. Based on their design procedures, the performance limits of both conventional surface-illuminated photodetectors and side-illuminated photodetectors are evaluated. We point out that in the ultrawide-band region, optical waveguide photodetectors have great advantages over conventional surface-illuminated photodetectors in terms of the product of the bandwidth and the external quantum efficiency. It is shown that a 100-GHz bandwidth can be achieved with little degradation of the external quantum efficiency by a multimode waveguide photodetector structure. We also present a design concept for overcoming the performance limits of solitary waveguide photodetectors by including an input tapered optical waveguide.

An integrated optoelectronic multiplier based on GaAs optoelectronic device technology, is proposed. The key element is an optoelectronic half-adder logic gate, which is composed of only two GaAs metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors (MSM-PD's). It operates with a single clock delay, less than 100 ps. An optoelectronic full-adder and a multiplier are also composed of half-adders and surface-emitting laser-diodes (SEL's). Cascadable gates with optical interconnections are integrated. Utilizing improved device fabrication technology, an optoelectronic high-speed multiplier with a minimum number of gates will be realized in LSI.

We have successfully developed an optical receiver and a laser driver circuit which were implemented with 0.35 µm GaAs JFETs (junction Field Effect Transistors). The 0.35 µm GaAs. JFET had the typical transconductance of 480 mS/mm with small drain conductance. An interdigit MSM (Metal Semiconductor Metal) -type photodetector and the JFETs were monolithically integrated on a GaAs substrate for the optical receiver. The fabricated optical receiver demonstrated Gb/s operation with a very low power consumption of 8.2 mW. The laser driver circuit operated at up to 4.0 Gb/s.