Seminar Report’03

Smart Pixel Arrays

INTRODUCTION

High speed smart pixel arrays (SPAs) hold great promise as an enabling
technology for board-to-board interconnections in digital systems. SPAs may be
considered an extension of a class of optoelectronic components that have existed
for over a decade, that of optoelectronic integrated circuits (OEICs). The vast
majority of development in OEICs has involved the integration of electronic
receivers with optical detectors and electronic drivers with optical sources or
modulators. In addition, very little of this development has involved more than a
single optical channel. But OEICs have underpinned much of the advancement in
serial fiber links. SPAs encompass an extension of these optoelectronic
components into arrays in which each element of the array has a signal
processing capability. Thus, a SPA may be described as an array of
optoelectronic circuits for which each circuit possesses the property of signal
processing and, at a minimum, optical input or optical output (most SPAs will
have both optical input and output).

The name smart pixel is combination of two ideas, "pixel"

is an image processing term denoting a small part, or quantized
fragment of an image, the word "smart" is coined from standard
electronics and reflects the presence of logic circuits. Together
they describe a myriad of devices. These smart pixels can be
almost entirely optical in nature, perhaps using the non-linear
optical properties of a material to manipulate optical data, or
they can be mainly electronic, for instance a photoreceiver
coupled with some electronic switching.

Dept. of AEI 1 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays
Smart pixel arrays for board-to-board optical interconnects may be used
for either backplane communications or for distributed board-to-board
communications, the latter known as 3-D packaging. The former is seen as the
more near-term of the two,

Figure 1
employing free-space optical beams connecting SPAs located on the ends of
printed circuit boards in place of the current state-of-the-art, multi-level electrical
interconnected boards. 3-D systems, on the other hand, are distributed board-to-
board optical interconnects, exploiting the third dimension and possibly
employing holographic interconnect elements to achieve global connectivity
(very difficult with electrical interconnects).

Most work in high speed SPAs has involved the use of either multiple-
quantum-well (MQW) modulators or vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers
(VCSELs) as the optical source, and each of these has taken one of two
approaches, monolithic and hybrid (e.g., monolithic VCSELs/GaAs and hybrid

Dept. of AEI 2 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays
VCSELs/Si). The hybrid approaches are rapidly gaining popularity since they can
take advantage of mainstream silicon microelectronics for the pixel logic
circuitry, thereby leveraging the 30 billion dollar silicon semiconductor industry.

LIGHT SOURCE MODULATION USING VCSELs

Figure 2

The figure shows a very simple depiction of a VCSEL showing the

substrate, layers of GaAs and AlAs that form the Bragg planes,
the quantum well region where gain occurs, the p and n doped
regions that make the p.n. diode junction

In a discussion of light source modulated smart pixels, it is

necessary to understand the devices that produce the light. The

Dept. of AEI 3 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays
Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) is a very
important and useful light source.

VCSELS utilize a quantum well structure to confine charges

to an active region much like edge emitting lasers. The main
difference between VCSELS and other semiconductor lasers is
the vertical structure. Most semiconductor lasers are planar and
emit out of the edge facet on all sides. This configuration allows
more active region than in VCSELS. The vertical lasers are
constructed from the same planar epitaxy method as the edge
emitting lasers, then etch back is used to produce a cylindrical
structure. Because the light spends a relatively small amount of
time in the gain region, it is necessary to optimize the cavity.
Layers are grown such that they form Bragg planes so that light
with the desired wavelength is preferentially propagated. This
structure is illustrated in figure. The VCSEL is crucial to smart
pixel applications because of the ability of VCSELS to form two
dimensional arrays. They are constructed out of material that is
convenient for fabrication of photodetectors and in some cases
logic, so, devices like VCSELS and FCSELS can be utilized in
monolithic smart pixels.

The VCSEL/Si Smart Pixel Arrays

The VCSEL-based SPAs that will be discussed are hybrid components

involving GaAs optoelectronic chips and Si electronic chips. Creating a hybrid
Si/GaAs structure involves epitaxially growing GaAs on Si or bonding the two
together. Although the former is likely to lead to faster SPAs, it has proven to be
a low yield process because of the large lattice mismatch that exists between

Dept. of AEI 4 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays
GaAs and Si, leading to unacceptable GaAs defect levels for fabricating laser
diodes. One way to combine the GaAs and Si chips is to mount both onto a
common base substrate which can support electrical microstrips between the two
chips.

The conventional way of doing this is to bond both to the base substrate
with their device sides up and then to electrically connect them by wire bonding
both chips to the microstrips and their associated bonding pads on the base
substrate. For large array sizes, an unrealistic amount of space on the chips and
on the base substrate will be devoted to bonding pads, and the length of the
electrical connections between the chips will defeat much, if not all, of the
advantage of the optical interconnects. Borrowing a technique from the emerging
technology of multi-chip module (MCM) fabrication, the chips can be placed
device-side down (called flip-chip) and bump bonded to the carrier. Bump
bonding has the distinct advantage that chip connections can be made anywhere
on the surface of the chip rather than being confined to the chip's periphery as is
the case for wire bonding. This most often leads to a shortening of interconnect
lengths, thereby enabling higher speed operation. Furthermore, bump bonding
can establish all chip connections in parallel, thus reducing production time for
large arrays. Flip-chip bonding of the optoelectronic chip to the base substrate
leads to an important constraint on this substrate. Since the optical sources now
face the substrate, it must be transparent to permit the optical beams to pass
through to the outside of the hybrid structure.

Dept. of AEI 5 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays

Figure 3.

Glass is the material that can be used due to cost considerations, but the
superior thermal properties of sapphire make it very appealing from all but the
cost viewpoint. A packaged SPA based on the flip-chip bonding of both the
VCSEL array and the electronic array (containing the detectors, processing
elements and laser drivers) to a transparent base substrate is shown in figure 3. A
hole is drilled in the well of a conventional ceramic package to allow passage of
both the incoming and outgoing light beams. Note that the transparent substrate
provides a convenient base on which to mount both refractive and diffractive
optical devices. Although only shown in the path of the outgoing beams, such
beam forming and directing devices could be used in the path of the incoming
beams also (e.g., to focus the beams onto the detectors).

SMART PIXEL ARRAY COMPONENTS

Dept. of AEI 6 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays

The VCSEL chip contains an 8x8 array of top-emitting VCSELs with a

250 µm pitch grown on a GaAs substrate. Each VCSEL consists of a single
quantum well active region surrounded by distributed Bragg reflectors, and has
been ion implanted for current confinement in the active region. The threshold
currents of the VCSELs are between 2.5 and 3.0 mA, the operating currents are
less than 8 mA at 2 V, and the output powers are approximately 1 mW. 90 µm
square bonding pads for attachment of the flip-chip bonds are evenly interspersed
amongst the VCSELs, each pad located a distance of 125 µm (center-to-center)
from its associated laser element. The silicon (CMOS) chip contains an 8x8
processing element (PE) array, an 8x8 photoreceiver array, an 8x8 VCSEL driver
array, and a 9x15 bonding pad array. Details of the three 8x8 arrays are given in
the following paragraphs.

Figure 4.

Each PE is a 1-bit wide processor that can operate at 20 MHz and consists
of an arithmetic logic unit, a logic circuit which can perform 16 logic functions, a
full adder, a 32-bit shift-register, 6 static registers, and some control circuits.
Although the PEs are capable of general purpose processing, they were designed

Dept. of AEI 7 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays
with FFT processing in mind. The PEs are electrically connected to their nearest
neighbors to facilitate localized processing. Each PE also has 4 Kbits of RAM
memory that is located off-chip due to on-chip space restrictions. The chip was
fabricated through MOSIS using the 2 µm CMOS process.

Each photoreceiver consists of a p-n junction photodiode, a current mirror

amplifier, and two voltage comparators. The first comparator converts the current
signal to a voltage signal, while the second comparator is used to boost the
voltage to 5 volts when the incident optical signal is modulated higher than 10
MHz. The photoreceiver can respond to an incident optical power of 100 µW at
14 MHz modulation. Each VCSEL driver consists of two logic inverters and a
pass gate, and can operate at 20 MHz. The drive current passing through the gate
and on to the VCSEL can be varied by adjusting the gate voltage, thereby
affording an independent current adjustment for each VCSEL. The circuit was
designed so as not to dissipate power in the OFF state.
The transparent substrate that is used is glass, as opposed to sapphire, due to cost
considerations and the lack of severe thermal dissipation requirements at array
sizes of only 8x8. Sapphire may need to replace glass for large size arrays. The
transparent substrate is patterned with the electrical interconnects that provide
connectivity between the chips and the package and between the VCSEL and
CMOS chips themselves. The thickness of the substrate was selected so as to
position the microlenses (lenslet array) at the correct focal length.
The lenslet array is a standard product of Nippon Sheet Glass. Its purpose is to
collimate the VCSEL beams prior to their diffraction by the holographic optical
interconnect element (HOIE). The center-to-center spacing of the microlenses in
the array is 250 µm to match the pitch of the VCSEL array.
The holographic optical interconnect element (HOIE) contains 64 individual
phase holograms (one per VCSEL) that diffract the VCSEL beams so as to
implement a non-separable perfect shuffle interconnection between two identical

Dept. of AEI 8 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays
SPAs). The HOIE was custom designed as a four-level diffractive optical
element using special CAD tools.

SPA PACKAGING

Thermosonic flip-chip bonding to mount both the VCSEL chip and the
CMOS chip to the glass substrate. The principles of thermosonic flip-chip
bonding are the same as those for conventional ultrasonic wire bonding except
that all of the bonds must be made simultaneously. This new flip-chip technique
was developed in place of the conventional techniques used in multi-chip module
(MCM) fabrication because of the different environment that exists in working
with optoelectronic chips. For example, solder reflow involves "dirty" processes
such as solder deposition and flux during reflow, and it is very difficult to deposit
solder on a chip once it has been diced. Also, the aluminum pads usually found
on CMOS chips are incompatible with most solder technologies used in MCM
fabrication. Conductive epoxy attachment is not feasible since the conductive
particles interfere with the optical paths. Finally, thermocompression bonding
involves higher temperatures and pressures, which could possibly damage the
mechanical stress sensitive VCSEL chip. Thermosonic bonding uses ultrasonic
energy to help "soften" the bonding material, thereby achieving bonding at lower
temperature and pressure than thermo-compression bonding. For the fabrication
of our smart pixel arrays, the VCSEL chips are flip-chip bonded to the base
substrates by first plating gold bumps (30 µm diameter by 20 µm high) onto the
gold surface contact pads of the VCSEL array. These plated contacts are then
accurately positioned relative to the contacts on the substrate. The parts are then
joined by a combination of heat, normal force, and ultrasonic energy.
Since the CMOS chips are received already diced, plating the bumps is not
feasible. Gold balls are bonded to the aluminum contacts by a conventional wire
bonding process, and the wires are subsequently removed. The remainder of the

Dept. of AEI 9 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays
bonding process is the same as for the VCSEL chips.
The glass substrates with their bonded CMOS and VCSEL chips are then
mounted in ceramic packages which have had holes drilled in their bottoms in
order to provide optical access to and from the photodetectors and VCSELs,
respectively, The package is then closed by adding the heat-sink/ground-plate (in
contact with the back-side of the VCSEL chip through a thermally conducting
grease). After closure, the lenslet arrays are glued to the exposed side of the
substrate (opposite side from the bonded chips), and the hologram arrays are
glued to the top of the lenslet arrays.

Figure 5

The figure is of one of SPAs as viewed through the hole in the ceramic
package. The small square is the 8x8 VCSEL array, and the large rectangle is the
CMOS chip (top sides of both chips visible through the glass substrate). Intra-
package electrical interconnect traces on the glass are also visible. This picture
was taken before the lenslet and hologram arrays were added.

OPTOELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION

Dept. of AEI 10 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays

Figure 6

Applications requiring the communication of digital data on the order of a

trillion bits per second (terabits/second) will require the high rates achievable
with optical channels. There are two applications that are driving current
developments in free-space optical interconnection: telecommunication-
datacommunication switching networks (e.g., ATM switches) and fine-grained
parallel computers. For the former, customer access to multimedia is projected to
require the switching of hundreds of thousands of subscriber lines, each running
at over 500 Mb/s. This results in throughputs that are three to four orders of
magnitude beyond the capacity of existing telecommunication networks, and one
to two orders of magnitude beyond the projections for current electrical
interconnect technology. In the case of fine-grained parallel computers, the need
for tight coupling between tens of thousands of processing elements, each
running near Gb/s data rates, also exceeds the projected capabilities of electrical
interconnects.

An example of a fine-grained parallel system is illustrated in figure 6.

This real-time graphics engine was designed to handle 1280x1024 pixels at 10
samples/pixel with 48 bits per sample for operation at 30 frames/second.

Dept. of AEI 11 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays
Although such a performance sounds impressive, it falls more than two orders of
magnitude short of rendering the number of polygons per second needed for true
realism in most virtual reality applications. The desirable bandwidth would
accommodate 1800x1100 pixels (HDTV) at 16 samples/pixel with 256
bits/sample for operation at 72 frames/second. This requires a board-to-board
throughput of 580 Gbits/second, well in excess of the Semiconductor Industry
Association (SIA) roadmap projection of a 100 Gbit/second throughput for a 256-
bit wide bus by the year 2010. Many of these datacommunication switching
network and parallel computer applications involve multiple boards with very
high interboard throughput rates. As noted, the system above could use 580
Gbits/second. Over a bus 256 bits wide, this would require each line rate to be in
excess of 2 Gbits/second. If the 128x128 SIMD array were to be replaced by a
128x128 smart pixel array (same functionality but optical I/O associated with
each pixel), the line rate would have to be only 35.4 Mbits/second, a very
reasonable rate.

Figure 7

The backplane of the figure 6 would be replaced by what is called a 3-D

system as illustrated in figure 7 in which the board-to-board interconnects are
light beams that fill much of the area vertical to the boards. The 3-D system that
is assembled for FFT processing consists of just two smart pixel arrays, but the

Dept. of AEI 12 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays
optical interconnects are bi-directional so that data are passed back and forth
between the SPAs. The system's 128 PEs run at a 10 MHz clock, yielding an
interconnect throughput of 160 MBytes/sec. Control of the 3-D computer is
performed by a host computer through the host interface unit. Software and data
are down-loaded to the interface at run time, and results are retrieved after
completion.

Figure 8.

The 3-D computer is designed to operate in the Single-Instruction stream,

Multiple-Data stream (SIMD) mode. Separate data are loaded into the local
memory of each processor. A single instruction bus, driven by a sequencer in the
host interface, simultaneously controls all the processors. Although the system is
capable of general purpose processing, it was designed for FFT processing. With
this in mind, the holograms were designed to implement the non-separable
perfect shuffle. Details of the optics for the system are shown in figure 9. The
laser beam from each VCSEL is first collimated by a microlens and then directed

Dept. of AEI 13 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays
to a designated photodetector on the opposing SPA by a Fourier-transform type
computer generated hologram and a Fourier transform lens. The system is
symmetrical around the Fourier transform lens.

Figure 9.

Although microlenses and holograms could be used with the

photodetectors to help focus the light, but not use them in this demonstration.
Instead, it was fabricated relatively large photodetectors (175 µm square). Tools
were developed for optical system design and optical crosstalk estimation. The
crosstalk estimation for the FFT processor is only 30db.

OPTOMECHANICS

A unique optomechanical structure is fabricated featuring a portable and

modular design concept. The custom optomechanical system allows and aids

Dept. of AEI 14 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays
various optical tests and precision alignment of the 3-D system, and it allows for
the replacement of malfunctioning SPAs. It was designed to decouple the
alignment procedures of all motion parameters (x,y,z,[alpha],[beta],[phi]) as
much as possible.

Figure 10.

There are three system modules that are integrated and aligned by the
optomechanics: the Fourier transform lens and the two SPAs. The lens is held
tightly by the ring and lens housing. The lens housing is screwed into the inner
cylinder at an appropriate "z" position so that the focal length of the lens falls on
to the detector plane. In a similar fashion, the outer cylinder is installed. This
assembly forms the lens module with a defined "z" position for location of the

Dept. of AEI 15 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays
two SPA substrates. This lens module is then integrated with the two SPAs
through connection plates which are glued to the ceramic packages of the SPAs
and through the lens module connectors as shown in the figure. The modules are
glued following an active alignment procedure that will not be described here.
This optomechanics has a volume of less than 12 cm3

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

The major goals will be to achieve more compact packaging and to scale
the SPAs to larger array dimensions. The former not only leads to smaller
components, but shortens electrical connections within the SPA, thereby leading
to higher potential speeds. It also supports the second goal since scaling can lead
to excessively long electrical connections within the SPA for the current
packaging methodology.

More compact VCSEL/Si smart pixel arrays

Future development will enable tighter coupling between the VCSEL and
the Si chips than is possible with the transparent substrate scheme currently used.
If the VCSEL chip is made to emit light in the opposite direction (i.e., in the
direction of its substrate), it becomes possible to flip-chip this chip directly onto
the Si chip, thereby minimizing the length of the electrical connections between
the processing elements and the VCSELs (the two device surfaces are now facing
one another). This is necessary if large-dimension high-speed (GHz) SPAs are to
be realized. Since high-speed operation also necessitates a higher performance

Dept. of AEI 16 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays
photodetector array than is possible in CMOS, it will be necessary to bond this
photodetector array as well as the VCSEL array to the CMOS chip. The figure 11
illustrates such a smart pixel array. There are at least three possible ways to
realize backside-emitting VCSEL arrays. First, the VCSELs can be made to emit
in the wavelength region in which GaAs is transparent. This is the case for
wavelengths longer than approximately 940 nanometers (nm) (most VCSELs are
now being fabricated for wavelengths in the region of 830 to 840 nm). Second,
the common wavelength VCSELs (830-840 nm) may be able to be grown on a
substrate that is transparent at those wavelengths. Third, following the flip-chip
bonding process, it may be possible to either remove or sufficiently thin the
GaAs substrate to prevent significant absorption. These are all fertile areas for
research and development.

Figure 11.

Once substrate-emission VCSEL arrays are available, another problem

remains to be solved before these arrays can be flip-chip bonded to silicon chips,
that of heat removal from such a hybrid structure. Since light must exit from the
backside of the VCSEL chip, a heatsink must either be transparent (e.g., diamond

Dept. of AEI 17 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays
film) or must be attached to the silicon substrate and the VCSEL heat drawn to
the silicon through the bonds. Until diamond films with close to 100%
transparency are available, the latter approach is more acceptable. Initial
estimates are that an 8x8 array of bump bonds will be capable of removing
several watts of power from a VCSEL chip. At present, we are experiencing
power dissipation levels for 8x8 VCSEL arrays in excess of 2 watts, but this is
expected to decrease by at least an order of magnitude over the next few years.
However, the 2 watt figure is probably a realistic goal for SPAs since increased
efficiencies will likely be accompanied by increased array dimensions (e.g.,
32x32 arrays). Another design problem must address whether heat sinks can
adequately remove the combined heat of the VCSEL and silicon chips, including
the VCSEL drivers. Our silicon-based VCSEL drivers are running at 10 MHz and
dissipating about 15 milliwatts each.

The flip-chip bonding of two separate chips onto the CMOS chip still
leads to the separation of devices within each pixel. The ultimate goal is to co-
locate the VCSEL, photodetector, and logic circuitry for each pixel. This can be
accomplished by integrating each VCSEL with a photodetector and providing a
bonding pad for each. An array of these integrated VCSELs and photodetectors is
then flip-chip bonded on to the CMOS chip as shown below such that the
circuitry associated with each VCSEL/detector pair is located directly beneath the
pair on the CMOS chip.

Dept. of AEI 18 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays

Figure 12.

The optical input, optical output, and pixel circuitry are in a single
location, thereby minimizing the electrical connections between the three. Future
smart pixel array development should consider one other aspect of integration,
that of integrating the lenslet arrays, either with the glass substrate (original
scheme) or with the GaAs substrate (future scheme). At present, commercial
lenslet arrays are used which are poorly matched to the VCSEL beam profiles
and which are difficult to align. Smaller alignment errors will allow smaller
photodetectors, resulting in faster systems.

Scaling VCSEL/Si smart pixel arrays

Understanding the manufacturing cost minimization issues involved in

scaling to larger array sizes is important in meeting market place demands for
SPAs. Since smaller VCSEL arrays are more reliable and less expensive, it may
be more cost effective to partition large dimensional SPAs into smaller units. A
scaling model needs to be realized in order to characterize packaging effects on
the assembly yield. This model should provide quantitative guidelines to transfer

Dept. of AEI 19 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays
one system design to another. This can then provide the system designer the
option of building N x N arrays from 4 N/2 x N/2 arrays, 16 N/4 x N/4 arrays,
etc. It is critical to guide the designs of these novel SPA-based systems so as to
enhance reliability and reduce manufacturing cost. The scaling model should
predict assembly yields for different options.

CONCLUSIONS

A major bottleneck in today's computing systems is the mostly serial

communications used between the processing elements and long term memory
(e.g., CDs and Zips). This bottleneck is particularly noticeable when fetching (or
writing in the case of writable media) high resolution images. If large 2-D data
fields, such as images, could be stored as a 2-D pattern of digits on a storage

Dept. of AEI 20 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays
media, a 2-D smart pixel array could fetch these fields in parallel blocks rather
than one or a few bits at a time. Data retrieval rates could improve by orders of
magnitude, depending on the size of the smart pixel arrays and the ability to
develop techniques for parallel error detection and correction.

Thus Smart pixels, the integration of photodetector arrays and processing

electronics on a single semiconductor chip, have been driven by its capability to
perform parallel processing of large pixelated images and in real-time reduce a
complex image into a manageable stream of signals that can be brought off-chip.

Dept. of AEI 21 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. ‘Progress and prospects of long wavelength VCSELs’

Connie J. Chang-Hasnain ,University of California,
IEEE Optical Communication ,February 2003.

2. www.sandialabs.gov
3. www.Lightreading.com
4. www.Colorado.edu
5. http://physics.montana.edu
6. www.optoelectronics.com

Dept. of AEI 22 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays

CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION 1

2. LIGHT SOURCE MODULATION USING VCSELs 3

3. THE VCSEL/Si SMART PIXEL ARRAY 4

4. SMART PIXEL ARRAY COMPONENTS 6

5. SMART PIXEL ARRAY PACKAGING 8

6. OPTOELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION 10

7. OPTOMECHANICS 13

8. FUTURE DIRECTIONS 15

9. CONCLUSIONS 19

10. BIBLIOGRAPHY 20

Dept. of AEI 23 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I extend my sincere gratitude towards Prof. P. Sukumaran

Head of Department for giving us his invaluable knowledge and
wonderful technical guidance

I express my thanks to Mr. Muhammed Kutty our group tutor

and also to our staff advisor Ms. Biji Paul for their kind co-operation and
guidance for preparing and presenting this seminar.

I also thank all the other faculty members of AEI department

and my friends for their help and support.

Dept. of AEI 24 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays

ABSTRACT

Smart pixels, the integration of photodetector arrays and processing

electronics on a single semiconductor chip, have been driven by its capability to
perform parallel processing of large pixelated images and in real-time reduce a
complex image into a manageable stream of signals that can be brought off-chip.
In recent years, optical modulators and emitters have been integrated with
photodetectors and on-chip electronics. The potential uses for smart pixels are
almost as varied as are the designs. They can be used for image processing, data
processing, communications, and that special sub-niche of communications,
computer networking. While no immediate commercial use for smart pixels has
risen to the forefront, smart pixels systems are utilizing technology developed for
a wide variety of other commercial applications. As lasers, video displays,
optoelectronics and other related technologies continue to progress, it is
inevitable that smart pixels will continue to integrate along with these
commercially successful technologies.

Dept. of AEI 25 MESCE, Kuttippuram

Seminar Report’03
Smart Pixel Arrays

Dept. of AEI 26 MESCE, Kuttippuram