Circuits and Systems Enabling Silicon-Photonics Signaling

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Computing and data communications have changed the way we work, communicate, socialize, learn and educate. To maintain and improve our lifestyle, and to solve most of the challenging problems we face as a society, e.g. developing personalized medicine or a sustainable management of energy resources, our need for super-computers and data-centers that can process massive amounts of data with manageable power continues to grow. This need has driven the exponential scaling of CMOS technology and the rise of multi-core and inter-linked data processing and communication in the last decade. However, this aggressive scaling is now being imperiled by the slower pace of scaling of Input/Output (I/O) data links. For example, ultra-high performance computing systems over the next decade are expected to require Terabytes per second of aggregate data throughput over I/O links. Based on the existing trend, this means providing 10 times the I/O bandwidth for 1/10th the power over the next decade, and presents a real challenge that cannot be addressed by standard copper interconnects. Silicon-photonics link, where the copper interconnect is replaced with an optical fiber and silicon-compatible photonic devices are driven by electronic circuits for data transmission, is a promising alternative. The end goal of our proposed research is the replacement of conventional copper-based electrical links with fully-integrated silicon-photonics electro-optical end-to-end link supporting wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM). Recent research in the optical community has enabled viable implementations of silicon-photonics devices. Our proposed research will now address the bigger picture – by co-designing circuits and photonics in one complete WDM system. We plan to work on achieving two breakthroughs that we believe are critical to the success of this technology in replacing purely electrical I/Os – (1) superior power efficiency, and (2) support for WDM. WDM provides the benefit of parallelizing numerous channels in a single optical fiber – something that is not easily possible in a copper cable. Digital-intensive integrated circuits will be designed to drive CMOS-compatible silicon-photonic devices to facilitate the electro-optical transmitter and receiver, while addressing concerns like variations, packaging, power consumption, etc. Numerous companies and universities across the world are engaged in conventional electrical and optical interconnect technology. A complete power-efficient WDM silicon-photonics integrated system will be a disruptive technology, and have the potential to herald new companies, jobs and technologies and be potentially transformative for Canada in re-establishing its position in data communications.