On-Chip Wireless Optical Communication: From Antenna Design to Channel Modelling

Optical Wireless Networks on-Chip are promising solutions to overcome problems of miniaturization and energy consumption in a multicore on-chip environment. In this paper, we report the results of the design of an integrated plasmonic Vivaldi antenna fed by a silicon waveguide for on-chip wireless connection, which can be easily integrated into optical networks on-chip to achieve a hybrid wired/wireless signal transmission. Moreover, the optical wireless channel is modeled through a ray tracing approach, and the relationship between the optical antennas gain and the communication range in the on-chip propagation environment is investigated.