OP: Collaborative Research: Coherent Integrated Si-Photonic Links

我们的社会正处于集成电路技术和制造新革命的风口浪尖。这项新技术将成功地结合电子和光子系统，创造出以前无法想象的功能和性能。这种复杂的片上电子-光子系统在许多通信场景中都是迫切需要的，它能高效地利用面积、能量和频谱资源。例如，当前的数据中心和高性能超级计算机都受到功率限制。高带宽密度和高能效的光子互连将使连接下降到处理器芯片水平，提高整个数据中心的功率效率和利用率，对未来十年的国家能源消耗产生重大影响。然而，缺乏大规模集成的方法、设计方法和统一的跨层设计阻碍了这些系统的实现。本项目中提出的电子-光子设计和系统设计方法的影响不仅涵盖通信系统，还包括各种其他复杂的电子-光子系统（例如检测，传感和仪器仪表）。这项多学科的工作将培养出一批独特的工程师和科学家，他们将跨越电子和光子系统的界限。本研究计划的目标是利用最近发展的大规模电子-光子集成方法来设计短距离相干调制光子链路，以显着提高面积，能量和频谱效率。提出的相干高阶调制发射机和接收机的电子-光子电路拓扑利用了每个域的优点，并纠正了另一个域的非理想性。从建模和仿真基础设施开始，提出的研究包括Verilog-A中独特的仿真和建模框架，该框架允许在大信号，非线性，时变条件下对光子和电子电路进行真正的联合仿真。这种能力为电子和光子电路的相互作用提供了重要的见解。在设计高效的电子-光子通信系统时，谐振元件的使用是必不可少的第二要素。虽然能量和面积效率高，但谐振元件需要复杂的波长稳定回路和电子驱动来补偿其传递函数特性，这是通过联合仿真方法和所提出的集成方法中的大量高性能晶体管实现的。

Our society is on the cusp of a new revolution in integrated circuit technology and manufacturing. The new technology will successfully combine electronic and photonic systems creating previously unimagined functionality and performance. Such sophisticated electronic-photonic systems-on-chip with highly-efficient use of area, energy and spectral resources are critically needed in many communication scenarios. For example, current data-centers and high-performance supercomputers are both power-constrained. High-bandwidth density and high-energy efficiency photonic interconnects would allow the connectivity down to the processor chip level increasing the power-efficiency and utilization of the whole data-center, significantly impacting the national energy consumption in the next decade. However, the lack of large-scale integration approach, design methodology and unified cross-layer design has prevented the realization of these systems. The impact of the electronic-photonic designs and system design methodology proposed in this project spans not only communication systems, but also a variety of other sophisticated electronic-photonic systems (e.g. detection, sensing, and instrumentation). The multi-disciplinary work will educate a unique crop of engineers and scientists that cross the boundaries of electronic and photonic systems. The objective of the research project is to utilize recently developed large-scale electronic-photonic integration approaches to design short-reach coherent-modulation photonic links that significantly improve the area, energy and spectral-efficiency. The proposed electronic-photonic circuit topologies for coherent high-order modulation transmitters and receivers leverage the advantages of each domain and correct for the non-idealities in the other. Starting from the modeling and simulation infrastructure, the proposed research comprises a unique simulation and modeling framework in Verilog-A, which allows for true co-simulation of photonic and electronic circuits, under large signal, non-linear, time-varying conditions. This capability gives vital insights into the interaction of electronic and photonic circuits. It is essential for the use of the resonant components as the second key ingredient in designing efficient electronic-photonic communication systems. Although energy and area efficient, the resonant components require sophisticated wavelength stabilization loops and electronic drive to compensate for their transfer-function characteristics, which are enabled by the co-simulation methodology and abundance of high-performance transistors in the proposed integration approaches.