SBIR Phase II: Vertical Electroabsorptive Modulated Laser (EML) Source for High-Speed Interconnects

该SBIR第二阶段项目旨在制造和商业化垂直电吸收调制激光器（V-EML），用于芯片到芯片，板到板和机架内光学应用的高速（高达40 Gbps）光学互连。 与目前使用铜互连或传统光纤链路的电气数据总线相比，V-EML将能够制造更高速度、更低成本、更低功耗和更小的光发射器，用于计算机和通信网络中的多通道光纤数据总线。该技术实际上消除了VCSEL光发射机的调制速度限制。同时，它以低成本保持高通道密度。V-EML的低功耗（~20 mW）和潜在的低成本（~ 1.0美元）将为多处理器计算机和服务器中的互连速度和功耗障碍提供解决方案。50至100微米的阵列间距对于V-EML将是可能的。 这意味着具有2.5 Tbps容量的8x8阵列的占用空间小于1.0 mm 2。 这比现有的铜线互连技术节省了大量的空间，并为过渡创造了另一个强大的动力。这项技术可以通过使宽带服务的部署更快和更广泛，从这项技术的商业化中带来社会效益。视听信息的超快速交付潜力巨大，因为V-EML技术有助于消除数据通信瓶颈。V-EML开发的教育和科学效益出现在超级计算机领域，具有足够的计算能力进行复杂的科学模拟。其应用包括用于更好预测的气候建模、分子水平建模（如医学中的蛋白质折叠）、农业中的生态系统建模以及商业信息和经济统计的大规模分析。当互连速度限制增加时，这些计算机可以更快和更有效地运行。

This SBIR Phase II project aims to fabricate and commercialize a Vertical Electro-absorptive Modulated Laser (V-EML) for high-speed (up to 40Gbps) optical interconnects for chip-to-chip, board-to-board, and intra-rack optical applications. Compared to current electrical data buses using copper interconnects or conventional fiber optic links, the V-EML will enable the fabrication of higher speed, lower cost, lower power consumption and smaller optical transmitters for multi-channel fiber optic data buses in computer and communication networks. This technology virtually removes the modulation speed limit of VCSEL optical transmitters. At the same time it maintains high channel density at low cost. The low power consumption of the V-EML (~20 mW) and its potential low cost in volume (~$1.0) will provide a solution to the interconnect speed and power barriers in multiprocessor computers and servers. An array spacing of 50 to 100 microns will be possible with V-EMLs. This means that an 8x8 array with 2.5 Tbps of capacity has less than 1.0 mm2 of footprint. This offers substantial space savings over the existing copper interconnect technology and creates another strong incentive for transition.This technology could provide societal benefits from the commercialization of this technology by enabling faster and more widespread deployment of broadband services. The potential for ultra-fast delivery of audiovisual information is enormous as the V-EML technology helps to remove data-com bottlenecks. Educational and scientific benefits of the V-EML development arise in the area of supercomputers with sufficient computing power for complex scientific simulations. Applications include climate modeling for better predictions, molecular level modeling such as protein folding in medicine, ecosystem modeling in agriculture, and large-scale analysis of business information and economic statistics. These computers could then operate much faster and much more efficiently when interconnect speed limits are increased.