Glossary
Optical Interconnects - Technologies and applications

Optical interconnect

A term that encompasses all optical communications over short or even very short distances.

VCSEL – Vertical Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser

Components used as photon sources for information transmission, particularly well-suited for optical interconnects.

Numerical aperture

A value characterizing the propagation conditions of photons in a waveguide, normalized to the guide’s entrance. The numerical aperture corresponds to the sine of the maximum angle of incidence of photons required to ensure guided propagation.

Binary error rate

A measure used to determine the quality of a digital transmission (optical or electrical).