Synthesis of planar photonic interconnects

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Over the past several years, we have witnessed rapid advances in communications and computing. Photonics has emerged as the technology of choice for almost all long-haul and metro area communication networks due to its large bandwidth capacity. On the contrary, photonics components have not been able to replace copper wires in computers and local area networks. This resulted in computer CPUs having instruction execution speeds that greatly exceed the speed of processor-to-processor and processor-to-memory links by ever increasing margins, creating a performance bottleneck. A radically new approach is required to overcome bottlenecks in computing and local area networks. Recent progress in the design and manufacture of interconnects clearly shows that planar photonic interconnects have the potential to change the information transfer and computing infrastructure in Canada and worldwide. The central objective of this proposal is to research fundamental science required to create novel algorithms to synthesize, simulate, and visualize planar photonic interconnects. A special emphasis will be put on establishing the path towards automatic synthesis of net topology directed at achieving capabilities to build large-scale optical circuits similar to the ones that have been developed to build electronics chips. This will be achieved through developing custom code and supplementing it with finite element method solvers and beam propagation algorithms. These tools will be deployed on high-performance computational platforms to synthesize and simulate the performance of optical interconnects. The project is expected to train highly qualified personnel in Canada. The ultimate goal of the project is to produce a new generation of professionals that will take charge in the design and deployment of novel photonic interconnect architectures. This proposal is expected to generate commercial interest from industry leaders in building photonic processors for the access telecommunication market.