Inverse-designed multi-dimensional silicon photonic transmitters
Abstract
Modern microelectronic processors have migrated towards parallel computing architectures with many-core processors. However, such expansion comes with diminishing returns exacted by the high cost of data movement between individual processors. The use of optical interconnects has burgeoned as a promising technology that can address the limits of this data transfer. While recent pushes to enhance optical communication have focused on developing wavelength-division multiplexing technology, this approach will eventually saturate the usable bandwidth, and new dimensions of data transfer will be paramount to fulfill the ever-growing need for speed. Here we demonstrate an integrated intra- and inter-chip multi-dimensional communication scheme enabled by photonic inverse design. Using inverse-designed mode-division multiplexers, we combine wavelength- and mode- multiplexing and send massively parallel data through nano-photonic waveguides and optical fibres. Crucially, as we take advantage of an orthogonal optical basis, our approach is inherently scalable to a multiplicative enhancement over the current state of the art.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2103.14139,
title = {Inverse-designed multi-dimensional silicon photonic transmitters},
author = {Ki Youl Yang and Alexander D. White and Farshid Ashtiani and Chinmay Shirpurkar and Srinivas V. Pericherla and Lin Chang and Hao Song and Kaiheng Zou and Huibin Zhou and Kai Pang and Joshua Yang and Melissa A. Guidry and Daniil M. Lukin and Han Hao and Lawrence Trask and Geun Ho Ahn and Andy Netherton and Travis C. Briles and Jordan R. Stone and Lior Rechtman and Jeffery S. Stone and Kasper Van Gasse and Jinhie L. Skarda and Logan Su and Dries Vercruysse and Jean-Philippe W. Maclean and Shahriar Aghaeimeibodi and Ming-Jun Li and David A. B. Miller and Dan Marom and Scott B. Papp and Alan E. Willner and John E. Bowers and Peter J. Delfyett and Firooz Aflatouni and Jelena Vučković},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2103.14139},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
Fig.2-4 present new experimental results -- (i) demonstration of a broadband, low cross-talk multiplexer, (ii) a silicon photonic mode-division multiplexing with a chip-scale soliton microcomb source, and (iii) a chip-to-chip optical interconnect using a multimode-matched fibre and inverse-designed beam couplers