Work package 2 pursues novel EDC devices and their integration with electronic transistors in order to eliminate information and energy bottlenecks of future integrated circuits.
Electrical links are fundamentally limited in speed and energy consumption, hindering the further progress of integrated circuits and computers in general. Photonics appears to be one of the only solutions that can eliminate the information and energy bottlenecks at the chipscale, but it remains an unresolved challenge to reach the extremely low bit-energies required. In particular, quantum noise and thermal noise introduce bit errors that cannot be tolerated for communication links between processors. A small number of electrons and associated photons pr. bit, i.e., a few-tens for receivers and a few-hundred for emitters, present new challenges and opportunities. It is our ambitious goal to demonstrate a nano-optoelectronic integrated circuit by combining novel EDC lasers and photodetectors integrated with electronic transistors.