4.2 Optoelectronics: Optoelectronic Technology for Nanosecond WDM-based Chip-scale Optical Networking
Abstract
The widespread adoption of parallel computing has led to the construction of networks that support more than thousands of processors that need to communicate with each other and with memories at high speed with bi-section bandwidths orders of magnitude greater than their connections to the users. These networks must scale while keeping cost and energy consumption low. To better support such applications, several recent efforts have begun to examine the suitability of building hybrid networks, which include both electrical packet switches (EPS) and reconfigurable optical circuit switches (OCS). To meet cost, scalability in size, and energy efficiency, we envision new hybrid designs in which photonic components reside on a chip. We have proposed a novel approach to explore arrays of fast tunable laser sources integrated with silicon on insulator (SOI) wave-division multiplexing (WDM) OCS network which also implements High-Speed Adaptive Receivers (HSAR) for wavelength trimming. The proposed approach will use the spectral modes supported by tunable nanolasers, where each processor can be assigned to transmit on a specific spectral mode excited from a drop port. Likewise, its receiver will be supplied by a spectral mode drop port designed to realize the HSAR. For tuning we have explored mechanisms, such as the capacitive free-carrier plasma dispersion effect and tunable second-harmonic generation (SHG) in silicon nitride (SiN), which are capable of providing sub-nanosecond response time to support data flows with sub-microsecond resolution. The goal of this project is to focus on fundamental research to develop novel optical technologies for WDM-based OCS networks by exploiting spectral degrees of freedom enabled by fast tunable arrays of lasers and HSARs. The specific objectives include: (i) design, fabrication and testing of fast tunable and intensity modulated laser sources and their arrays; (ii) design, fabrication and testing of fast tunable HSARs and their arrays; (iii) development of a novel characterization tool to measure the developed tunable lasers and HSAR operating in data modulated regime by exploiting the second-order intensity correlation technique; and (iv) design, manufacturing (via AIM Photonics) and testing of the scaled-down system.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Sep 11, 2018
- Source ID
- W911NF1610245
Entities
People
- Yeshaiahu Fainman
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- United States Army
- University of California, San Diego