Silicon photonic devices for ultra-high-capacity coherent optical transmissions

在过去的几十年里，我们目睹了数以百万计的新用户和众多新兴的在线应用程序推动了互联网流量的惊人增长。当今世界上几乎90%的数据是在过去两年中创建的。这种巨大的增长刺激了光通信技术的快速发展，以获得更高的数据传输能力。大规模集成电路是下一代光通信系统的必备技术。该项目的目的是开发超高容量光传输的集成解决方案，使用一种颠覆性技术，即应用微处理器标准半导体工艺的硅光子学。为了实现这一目标，我们将研究宽带光信号产生的各种策略，并探索数字和光领域的先进信号处理，以提高系统性能。这项提议的研究将极大地推动硅光子学的发展。目前，高容量光传输网络采用最先进的传输技术，对性能要求也非常严格，但仍以离散光器件为主，随着系统复杂度的增大，离散光器件将很快成为瓶颈。我们的研究将通过提供适合大规模生产的创新集成光子解决方案来解决这一问题。该项目的成果将使加拿大工业在即将到来的全球竞争中处于领先地位。这个拟议的项目属于UL研发计划的战略轴心：模拟智能社区，发明他们的技术和物流。通过这个项目，我们将加强UL在光学光子学领域的领导地位，并将为培养这一战略领域的下一代加拿大创新者做出贡献。

Over the past decades, we have witnessed an incredible increase in the Internet traffic driven by millions of new users and numerous emerging online applications. Almost 90% of the data in the world today was created in the last two years. This tremendous growth has spurred a rapid evolution of optical communication technology for higher data transmission capacity. Large-scale integrated circuits are a must-have technology for next-generation optical communications systems. The aim of this project is to develop an integrated solution for ultra-high-capacity optical transmissions, using a disruptive technology, namely, silicon photonics that applies the standard semiconductor process used for microprocessors. To achieve this goal, we will examine both various strategies for broadband optical signal generation and explore advanced signal processing in both digital and optical domains to push the system performance.The proposed research will drastically push the boundaries of silicon photonics. To date, high-capacity optical transport networks, which apply the most advanced transmission techniques with stringent requirements on performance, are still dominated by discrete optical devices that will soon become a bottleneck as the system complexity scales up. Our research will address this issue by providing innovative integrated photonic solutions that are suitable for mass production. The outcomes of this project will place Canadian industry in an advanced position in the coming global competition. This proposed project falls within the strategic axis of UL's Research and Development Plan: Model intelligent communities, invent their technologies and logistics. Through this project, we will reinforce the UL's leadership in the domain of optics-photonics and will contribute to the training of the next generation of Canadian innovators in this strategic domain.