Femtosecond-precision electronic clock distribution in CMOS chips by injecting frequency comb-extracted photocurrent pulses

A clock distribution network (CDN) is a ubiquitous on-chip element that provides synchronized clock signals to all different circuit blocks in the chip. To maximize the chip performance, today’s CDN demands lower jitter, skew, and heat dissipation. Conventionally, on-chip clock signals have been distributed in the electric voltage domain, resulting in increased jitter, skew, and heat dissipation due to clock drivers. While low-jitter optical pulses have been locally injected in the chip, research on effective distribution of such high-quality clock signals has been relatively sparse. Here, we demonstrate femtosecond-precision distribution of electronic clocks using driver-less CDNs injected by photocurrent pulses extracted from an optical frequency comb source. Femtosecond-level on-chip jitter and skew can be achieved for gigahertz-rate clocking of CMOS chips by combining ultralow comb-jitter, multiple driver-less metal-meshes, and active skew control. This work shows the potential of optical frequency combs for distributing high-quality clock signals inside high-performance integrated circuits, including 3D integrated circuits.