Integrated SOAs enable energy-efficient intra-data center coherent links.

Coherent optical links are becoming increasingly attractive for intra-data center applications as data rates scale. Realizing the era of high-volume short-reach coherent links will require substantial improvements in transceiver cost and power efficiency, necessitating a reassessment of conventional architectures best-suited for longer-reach links and a review of assumptions for shorter-reach implementations. In this work, we analyze the impact of integrated semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) on link performance and power consumption, and describe the optimal design spaces for low-cost and energy-efficient coherent links. Placing SOAs after the modulator provide the most energy-efficient link budget improvement, up to 6 pJ/bit for large link budgets, despite any penalties from nonlinear impairments. Increased robustness to SOA nonlinearities makes QPSK-based coherent links especially attractive, and larger supported link budgets enable the inclusion of optical switches, which could revolutionize data center networks and improve overall energy efficiency.

2 λ switch.

We demonstrate an elastic multi-wavelength selective switch with up to two wavelength switching capability per crosspoint. We fabricated the switch in a silicon photonics foundry and demonstrated a 17 nm tuning range for ring resonators, with a mean path loss of 2.43 dB. This is a 70% reduction in path loss as compared to previous generations, and we demonstrate a high-speed pulse-amplitude-modulation-4 transmission at 111 Gbps through different paths of the switch.

Multi-wavelength selective crossbar switch.

Here we demonstrate an 8x4 multi-wavelength selective ring resonator based crossbar switch matrix implemented in a 220-nm silicon photonics foundry for interconnecting electronic packet switches in scalable data centers. This switch design can dynamically assign up to two wavelength channels for any port-port connection, providing almost full connectivity with significant reduction in latency, cost and complexity. The switch unit cell insertion loss was measured at 0.8 dB, with an out-of-band rejection of 32 dB at 400 GHz channel separation. All the ring resonator heaters were thermally tuned, with heaters controlled by a custom 64-channel DAC driver. Detailed measurements on the whole switch showed standard deviation of 2 dB in losses across different paths, standard deviation of 0.33 nm in resonant wavelength and standard deviation of 0.01 nm/mW in ring heater tuning efficiency. Data transmission experiments at 40 Gbps showed negligible penalty due to crosstalk paths through the switch.

On-chip wavelength locking for photonic switches.

We present an on-chip wavelength reference with a partial drop ring resonator and germanium photodetector. This approach can be used in ring-resonator-based wavelength-selective switches where absolute wavelength alignment is required. We use the temperature dependence of heater resistance as a temperature sensor. Additionally, we discuss locking speed, statistical variation of heater resistances, and tuning speed of the switches.

Forward bias operation of silicon photonic Mach Zehnder modulators for RF applications.

In this paper, we demonstrate that forward bias (+0.9V) of a high-speed silicon (Si) optical Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) increases the radio-frequency (RF) link gain by 30 dB when compared to reverse bias operation (-8V). RF applications require tunable, narrowband electro-optic conversion with high gain to mitigate noise of the optical receiver and realize high RF spur-free dynamic range. Compared to reverse bias, the forward bias gain rolls off more rapidly but offers higher RF link gain improvement of more than 13.2 dB at 20 GHz. Furthermore, forward bias is shown to result in comparable spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR: 104.5 dB.Hz2/3). We demonstrate through an analytical dc transfer curve the existence of simultaneous high gain and OIP3 and verify the theoretical results with measurement under forward bias at a bias point of around +0.9 V.

Ultralow crosstalk nanosecond-scale nested 2 × 2 Mach-Zehnder silicon photonic switch.

We present the design and characterization of a novel electro-optic silicon photonic 2×2 nested Mach-Zehnder switch monolithically integrated with a CMOS driver and interface logic. The photonic device uses a variable optical attenuator in order to balance the power inside the Mach-Zehnder interferometer leading to ultralow crosstalk performance. We measured a crosstalk as low as -34.5 dB, while achieving ∼2 dB insertion loss and 4 ns transient response.

30-Gb/s 90-nm CMOS-driven equalized multimode optical link.

We report an 850-nm vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL)-based optical link that achieves a new record in speed. The laser driver and receiver ICs are fabricated in standard 90-nm bulk CMOS, and the optoelectronic devices are commercial components. Operation at 30 Gb/s with a bit-error rate < 10(-12) is achieved, representing to the authors' knowledge the highest speed reported to date for a CMOS-based full optical link. Transmitter feed-forward equalization is shown to improve maximum data rate from 25 to 30 Gb/s, timing margin by 17% at 23.5 Gb/s, and receiver sensitivity by 4 dB at 23.5 Gb/s.

High-speed receiver based on waveguide germanium photodetector wire-bonded to 90nm SOI CMOS amplifier.

The performance of a receiver based on a CMOS amplifier circuit designed with 90nm ground rules wire-bonded to a waveguide germanium photodetector is characterized at data rates up to 40Gbps. Both chips were fabricated through the IBM Silicon CMOS Integrated Nanophotonics process on specialty photonics-enabled SOI wafers. At the data rate of 28Gbps which is relevant to the new generation of optical interconnects, a sensitivity of -7.3dBm average optical power is demonstrated with 3.4pJ/bit power-efficiency and 0.6UI horizontal eye opening at a bit-error-rate of 10(-12). The receiver operates error-free (bit-error-rate < 10(-12)) up to 40Gbps with optimized power supply settings demonstrating an energy efficiency of 1.4pJ/bit and 4pJ/bit at data rates of 32Gbps and 40Gbps, respectively, with an average optical power of -0.8dBm.

Non-blocking 4x4 electro-optic silicon switch for on-chip photonic networks.

We present a 4x4 spatially non-blocking Mach-Zehnder based silicon optical switch fabricated using processes fully compatible with standard CMOS. We successfully demonstrate operation in all 9 unique switch states and 12 possible I/O routing configurations, with worst-case cross-talk levels lower than -9 dB, and common spectral bandwidth of 7 nm. High-speed 40 Gbps data transmission experiments verify optical data integrity for all input-output channels.