Silicon photonic modulators for advanced modulation formats in data center applications

用于数据中心应用中高级调制格式的硅光子调制器

• 批准号: 438811-2012
• 负责人: LaRochelle, Sophie
• 金额: $ 7.61万
• 依托单位: Université Laval
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Collaborative Research and Development Grants
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=574502
• 关键词: Silicon; photonic; modulators; advanced; modulation

In today's information technology world, massive amount of data are stored, retrieved, and transmitted at an ever increasing speed between servers in data centers. The industry is looking to innovate in optical transmission solutions that are lower cost, lower size, lower power, higher density and higher speed to support this growth. Optical devices in silicon have the potential of being extremely small and low in power consumption. Silicon devices and integrated circuits have been the workhorse of microelectronics for decades but photonic circuits in this material is just starting to emerge as a practical solution for high speed data networks. The goal of this project is to develop a modulator that will be fabricated in silicon-on-insulator material using fabrication processes compatibles with microelectronics for low cost production. Rather than simple digital ON-OFF modulation, this project will address modulation formats with several amplitude levels. These formats allow data to be transferred at a higher rate but at the same time put more stringent requirements on the modulator characteristics, for example in terms of loss and linearity. Some of these distortions can be compensated through adequate signal processing, an aspect that will also be studied in this project through numerical simulations. The project proposes the development of a silicon photonic modulator that will be able to generate signals to transmit 100 Gbit/s on one wavelength channel. This will require three fabrication iterations, followed by completed device characterization and performance evaluation in transmission testbed. This project is in partnership with TeraXion, a Canadian company that has successfully commercialized several advanced technology products for high-speed optical fiber transmission networks.

在当今的信息技术世界中，大量数据以不断增加的速度在数据中心的服务器之间存储、检索和传输。该行业正在寻求创新的光传输解决方案，这些解决方案具有更低的成本，更小的尺寸，更低的功率，更高的密度和更高的速度，以支持这一增长。硅中的光学器件具有非常小且功耗低的潜力。几十年来，硅器件和集成电路一直是微电子学的主力，但这种材料中的光子电路才刚刚开始成为高速数据网络的实用解决方案。 该项目的目标是开发一种调制器，该调制器将使用与微电子兼容的低成本生产制造工艺在绝缘体上硅材料中制造。而不是简单的数字开关调制，该项目将解决调制格式与几个幅度水平。这些格式允许以更高的速率传输数据，但同时对调制器特性提出了更严格的要求，例如在损耗和线性度方面。其中一些失真可以通过适当的信号处理来补偿，这方面也将在本项目中通过数值模拟进行研究。 该项目提出了一种硅光子调制器的开发，该调制器将能够产生在一个波长信道上传输100 Gbit/s的信号。这将需要三次制造迭代，然后在传输测试台上完成器件表征和性能评估。该项目是与TeraXion合作开展的，TeraXion是一家加拿大公司，已成功地将几种用于高速光纤传输网络的先进技术产品商业化。