Abstract

We report on the characterization of a hybrid smart pixel using a special photoconductive switch [1] as receiver and a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) as transmitter component. Due to its special design, the photoconductive switch provides sufficient gain to operate the VCSEL without any further intermediate electronics. In the on-state the smart pixel exhibits an optical output power of 1.5 mW. The DC switching contrast is in excess of 30 dB. We measured a 3 dB bandwidth of 300 MHz (corresponding to a Bitrate of 600 MBit/s) while still obtaining an optical gain of 2.2. The overall optical switching energy is as low as 795 fJ.

© 1998 IEEE