Smart photodetector array for page-oriented optical memory in 0.35-μm CMOS

We demonstrate the first smart photodetector array designed to perform parallel error correction on an entire page of data and satisfy the sustained data rates of page-oriented optical memories. Our implementation integrates a differential photoreceiver with a cluster error correction code using 0.35-μm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS). This approach provides high optical sensitivity (150-fJ switching energy), low electrical power (46.2 mW), and fast correction of 2×2 cluster errors to achieve corrected output data rates scalable to 102 Gb/s in the current technology increasing to 2.5 Tb/s in 0.1-μm CMOS.