Described are a method and a device for high speed transmission of a data
signal across an electrical interconnect in an integrated circuit. An
optical carrier is modulated with a local oscillator signal at a
modulation frequency substantially greater than the data signal to
generate an optical local oscillator signal. Phototransducers at the ends
of the interconnect illuminated by the optical local oscillator signal
generate electrical local oscillator signals. At the transmit end of the
interconnect, the data signal is mixed with an electrical local
oscillator signal to generate an upconverted data signal. After
transmission across the interconnect to the receive end, the upconverted
data signal is mixed with the electrical local oscillator signal to
retrieve the original data signal.