Integrated Vivaldi antennas, an enabling technology for optical wireless networks on chip

In this paper, we propose an integrated Vivaldi antenna, coupled to a silicon waveguide, for wireless Optical Network-on-Chip applications. On-chip wireless propagation characteristics and point-to-point link performances in homogeneous and multilayered medium are investigated and discussed as well. The proposed structure allows the implementation of wireless communication at optical frequencies and it can lead to a completely new approach in network design, allowing hybrid wireless/wired communications on the same die. This hybrid solution, in fact, can mitigate the problems related to the design and the fabrication of complex switching matrices in large networks, where long paths suffer of crosstalk and loss issues.