Many network processors and high speed data interfaces provide low cost, low power implementations of electrical data interfaces running at 100’s of Gbps. Inherent to the scheme is signal degradation expressed in loss per inch; 0.5dB loss per centimeter for a 20cm coaxial cable may be acceptable but scaled up to carry data across a ¼ km of disk farm is a non-starter. The loss solution is fiber and optics. Optical loss may be 0.5dB per kilometer rather than per cm with a potentially much higher immunity to noise and interference.

New work has introduced fabrication technology that allows for silicon based lasers and optical components promising a shared monolithic die combining EICs (“Electrical ICs”) with OICs (“Optical ICs.”) Also promising are increasingly economic packaging approaches to building multi-die modules compose of both EICs and OICs. This paper will discuss the test challenges this presents for the usual SOC test flow and how these challenges are expected to emerge over time.