E2CDA: Type I: Collaborative Research: Electronic-Photonic Integration Using the Transistor Laser for Energy-Efficient Computing

尽管在现代计算机网络、数据中心和电信系统中普遍使用光来承载信息以支持社会对带宽的不断增长的需求，但是在使用光来在集成电路芯片之间或集成电路芯片上承载信息方面已经取得了有限的进展。 在利用光来处理信息的电路方面取得的进展更少。 真正的电子-光子集成进展的一个关键障碍是缺乏在光（光子）和电子域中操作的电路元件。 伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校的尼克·霍洛尼亚克教授取得了一项重要突破。和米尔顿冯，是某些类型的晶体管（电子电路的基本构件）可以修改，以产生和作用于光。 这些发光晶体管（LET）和晶体管激光器（TL）将用于该计划，以形成真正的电子-光子数字逻辑电路，以及芯片上和芯片之间的高速光链路。 这项技术有望大幅提高信息处理设备的速度和能效，并使处于性能前沿的新型集成电路在商业上取得成功。 教育和推广活动将向本科生和高中教师介绍一种基于光的新技术，STEM相关领域的新的兴奋和创造电子光子电路工程的未来职业生涯的承诺。该计划的技术工作重点是建立一个基本的电子光子电路，可用作超节能电子-光子电路的核心构建模块。光子计算系统 一个多学科的团队已经组装了跨越半导体物理，材料和设备处理，设备设计，高速电路和计算机架构领域的专业知识，以应对各种技术挑战，并创建一个可行的技术平台。 在基础层面，将为器件开发基于物理的模型，以优化它们的电子和光子功能，并预测它们在电子-光子电路中的性能。 在串联中，器件和电路将被制造和表征，以优化其性能并改进器件模型。 将这些器件和电路扩展到具有常规硅电路的系统中将需要开发可扩展的处理技术，该技术允许形成嵌入硅芯片内的电子-光子“岛”，该电子-光子“岛”沿着在这些岛之内和之间具有电子和光子互连。 最后，将在芯片和系统级开发架构，以优化利用这些电子光子逻辑电路提供的功能。

Despite the prevalent use of light to carry information in modern computer networks, data centers, and telecommunications systems to support society's ever-increasing demand for bandwidth, limited progress has been made on the use of light to carry information between or on integrated circuit chips. Even less progress has been made on circuits that use light to process information. A key impediment to progress on true electronic-photonic integration has been the lack of a circuit element that operates in both the domain of light (photons) and electrons. An important breakthrough, made at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign by Professors Nick Holonyak, Jr. and Milton Feng, is that certain types of transistors (the basic building blocks of electronic circuits) can be modified to generate and be acted on by light. These light-emitting transistors (LETs) and transistor lasers (TLs) will be used in this program to form true electronic-photonic digital logic circuits, and high-speed optical links both on and between chips. This technology is expected to dramatically improve the speed and energy efficiency of devices that process information, and to enable the commercial success of a new class of integrated circuits at the forefront of performance. Education and outreach activities will introduce undergraduates and high school teachers to a new technology based on light, renewing excitement in STEM-related fields and the creating the promise for a future career in electronic-photonic circuit engineering.The technical work in this program is focused on bringing into existence a basic electronic-photonic circuit that can be used as the core building block for ultra-energy-efficient electronic-photonic computing systems. A multidisciplinary team has been assembled with expertise that spans the areas of semiconductor physics, materials and device processing, device design, high-speed circuits, and computer architecture to attack a variety of technical challenges and create a viable technology platform. At the fundamental level, physics-based models will be developed for the devices to optimize them for electronic and photonic functionality and predict their performance in an electronic-photonic circuit. In tandem, devices and circuits will be fabricated and characterized to optimize their performance and to improve the device models. Incorporating these devices and circuits into systems with conventional silicon circuits will require the development of scalable processing technologies that allow the formation of electronic-photonic "islands" embedded within silicon chips along with the electronic and photonic interconnects within and between these islands. Finally, architectures will be developed at the chip and system level that make optimal use of the functionality provided by these electronic-photonic logic circuits.