title: Performance-based adaptive power optimization for digital optical interconnects.
abstract: Optical links are traditionally set to transmit maximum power for worst-case loss and consequently to dissipate more power than is required. We describe a technique to minimize power consumption based on the measured bit-error rate (BER) of the link. This technique uses a novel power-negotiation algorithm that optimizes the link power setting to achieve minimum power dissipation for a target BER. A 0.5 microm complementary metal-oxide semiconductor optical transceiver chip was fabricated, and a free-space optical interconnect system was built for validation. The results showed that the algorithm was able to find the optimum power settings for the VCSELs for a target BER and to account for dynamic changes such as variation in the optical loss in the system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA. xiaoqing.j.wang@intel.com
authors.forename: Xiaoqing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Fouad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kiamilev
authors.forename: George C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Papen
authors.forename: Jeremy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ekman
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gui
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: McFadden
authors.forename: Joseph C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Deroba
authors.forename: Michael W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Haney
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kuznia