Optical Power Supply and Data Communication for APS Circuits

Active-pixel-sensor (APS) circuits and perhaps other dense complementary metal oxide/semiconductor (CMOS) very-large-scale integrated (VLSI) circuits would be powered by infrared beams transmitted by laser diodes and received by photodetectors, according to a proposal. Clock signals for synchronizing the operations of such a circuit would be transmitted as modulation on the infrared power-supply beam. Command data signals could be received via other, low-power infrared beams. Digital APS output signals would likewise be sent to external circuits via modulation of infrared beams transmitted by low-power laser diodes incorporated into the VLSI APS chips.