Rockley Photonics and the University of Southampton: A Prosperity Partnership

根据思科2016年全球云指数，超大规模数据中心的数量将从2015年底的259个增长到2020年的485个，到2020年将占所有已安装数据中心服务器的47%。这一超乎寻常的增长预测将使本已在努力应对现有IT基础设施技术的成本和电力需求的行业雪上加霜。Rockley Photonics正在为云数据中心开发一种高度可扩展的光纤网络和分组交换解决方案。该解决方案的核心将是该公司的TopangaTM光纤接口分组交换机专用集成电路（ASIC）。借助TopangaTM ASIC，可以在云数据中心中将多达数十万台服务器连接在一起，而当前资本支出（CAPEX）和运营支出（OPEX -主要是电源）的一小部分，实现了新兴虚拟现实和机器学习应用所需的卓越服务器利用率和更低的通信延迟。Rockley Photonics TopangaTM在业界首次使用了将波分复用（WDM）与开关ASIC集成在一起的硅光子芯片，直接在ASIC上带来高带宽的数据。这些芯片使用微尺度硅光子光电元件（例如调制器）来执行电光转换，具有新的紧凑程度和高密度，与asic相匹配，将电气连接长度缩短到几乎为零。这一提议的繁荣合作伙伴关系汇集了英国硅光子学领域的主要工业和学术合作伙伴，罗克利光子学和位于南安普顿大学光电子研究中心（ORC）的硅光子学集团。Rockley的管理团队已经参与了2家硅光子初创公司，现在Rockley Photonics正在开拓第三代这种新兴技术。ORC团队已经在该领域展示了许多世界第一，并且在全球范围内被称为硅光子学领域的先驱团队。这些团队将共同组成一个强大的繁荣合作伙伴关系，通过开发新的光子解决方案和光信号的调制和分配，以及整体交换架构，共同改变数据中心架构处理大量数据的方式。我们预计，如果我们取得成功，这笔资金将产生重大影响。自1989年以来，南安普敦大学硅光子学小组在该领域的开创性工作在国际上享有盛誉。2012年，该团队搬到了南安普顿大学，在那里，研究人员总数增长了3倍，达到40多名。该集团不仅在南安普顿环境中拥有大量的关键合作伙伴，而且在运行和使用洁净室综合体方面发挥着关键作用，使他们在设计、制造、原型制作和测试设施/专业知识方面处于全球独特的地位。最近，EPSRC在光刻扫描能力方面投资了300万英镑，增加了对洁净室综合体的投资，该投资超过1.2亿英镑，可实现快速原型设计，是促进颠覆性光学器件和光学电路研究的理想选择。合并后的团队将共同开发下一代Rockley Photonics产品所需的器件和光子电路。

According to the Cisco's 2016 Global Cloud Index, hyperscale data centers will grow from 259 in number at the end of 2015 to 485 by 2020 and will represent 47 percent of all installed data center servers by 2020. This extraordinary growth prediction will exasperate an industry already struggling to cope with the costs and power requirements of existing IT infrastructure technology. Rockley Photonics is developing a highly scalable optical fibre networking and packet switch solution for cloud datacenters. The heart of the solution will be the company's TopangaTM optical fiber interfaced packet switch application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). With the TopangaTM ASIC, one can network up to hundreds of thousands of servers together in cloud datacenters at a fraction of the current capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operating expenditure (OPEX - mainly power), achieving greatly superior server utilization and lower communication latency required for emerging virtual reality and machine learning applications. Rockley Photonics TopangaTM for the first time in the industry uses silicon photonics chips incorporating wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) integrated with the switch ASIC to directly bring high bandwidths of data on and off the ASIC. These chips use micro-scale silicon photonic opto-electronic elements (e.g. modulators) to perform the electrical-to-opical conversions with new levels of compactness and high densities pitch-matched to the ASICs to reduce electrical connection length almost to zero.This proposed Prosperity Partnership brings together the UK's premier industry and academic partners in the field of Silicon Photonics, Rockley Photonics and The Silicon Photonics Group at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), University of Southampton. The management team at Rockley have already been involved in 2 Silicon Photonics start-up companies and now Rockley Photonics is pioneering the 3rd generation of this emerging technology. The ORC team have demonstrated numerous world firsts in the field, and are known around the globe as a pioneering team in the field of Silicon Photonics. Together these teams will form a formidable Prosperity Partnership that will work together to transform the way in which data centre architectures handle vast quantities of data by developing novel photonic solutions to the modulation and distribution of optical signals, and the overall switching architectures. We anticipate significant impact from the funding, should we be successful.The Silicon Photonics Group at the University of Southampton are well known internationally for pioneering work in the field since 1989. In 2012 the group moved to Southampton University where the head count has since grown by a factor of x3 to more than 40 researchers in total. Not only do the group have a large number of key collaborators within the Southampton environment, but also play a key role in running and using the clean room complex, putting them in a unique position worldwide in having design, fabrication, prototyping and testing facilities/expertise. The investment of more than £120 Million in the cleanroom complex has recently been enhanced by a £3million EPSRC investment in a photolithography scanning capability which enables fast prototyping, ideal for facilitating disruptive optical device and optical circuit research.Together the combined teams will develop the devices and photonic circuits necessary for future generations of Rockley Photonics products.