Photonic Integrated Modulators for Aerospace and Data/Telecom

现代社会对快速可靠通信的需求支持着工业、物联网、交通系统、娱乐电子产品的运行，并允许信息和知识的交流。大多数业务依赖于光互连，提供低成本、高容量、低功耗的网络连接，包括数据中心、卫星、超级计算机和互联网。根据思科的报告，到2020年，包括互联网在内的网络流量将增加到40zb。从数字的角度来看，从人类开始到2003年产生的数据总量是一个泽字节的0.5%。此外，不断增长的数据流量占2020年全球总排放量的12%。因此，开发具有更高容量和更低功耗的高效网络至关重要。该项目将有助于更高效的调制器，这将影响地面和卫星通信系统，以增加容量，减少污染，并改善航空航天系统、数据中心、高性能计算机和网络中的光互连的环境可持续性。本研究将利用砷化铟量子点的特性，包括1。展示用于航空航天应用的调制器的辐射和温度弹性：砷化铟量子点的辐射和温度耐受性将优于使用量子井的竞争开发。可承受10倍至5倍的辐射和温度。提供更少的带宽；主要在高温下工作时耗电量大。该调制器将有助于替代电流解决方案，在轻型，低功耗和超高速光互连中，重型，耗电和缓慢的电气互连。这项研究将使……高数据速率卫星通信，支持改进的服务，包括偏远和农村地区的快速互联网；减小的尺寸和重量将改善航天器的燃料消耗和污染，实现净零排放。利用量子点对线位错和材料应力的弹性，在硅上生长调制器，为硅光子平台带来更高效的调制器。由于硅的调制效应弱，不可能生产出高效的调制器。另一方面，利用更有效的调制器，量子点表现出比硅更强的效应，并且由于其在硅上生长时的弹性，将优于当前的量子阱单片集成方法。这一发展将影响使用硅基光子集成电路（PICs）的商业光互连和当前依赖于它们的网络。通过将量子点调制器集成到现有的商用硅基pic中，地面光互连的性能将得到改善，为数据中心、高性能计算机和互联网提供更高效的网络基础。硅光子代工厂VTT将提供硅光子集成电路。为了确保研究的商业相关性，该项目与航空航天和数据/电信领域的主要工业参与者合作，包括空客、ALTER Technology、Bay Photonics、STAR-Dundee和VTT。此外，这项工作将在国家外延设施和化合物半导体研究所进行。因此，该项目很好地培训了相关工业问题的研究人员，评估了技术的商业相关性，并指导了未来的发展。

The modern society's need for fast and reliable communications supports the operation of industries, the Internet of things, transportation systems, entertainment electronics and allows the exchange of information and knowledge. Most services rely on optical interconnects that provide low-cost, high-capacity, low-power consumption network connections, including data centers, satellites, supercomputers, and the Internet.According to the Cisco report, the network traffic, including the Internet, has increased to 40 Zettabytes of data in 2020. To put the numbers in perspective, the total data generated from the beginning of humanity until 2003 is 0.5% of a Zettabyte. Furthermore, the ever-increasing data traffic accounted for 12% of total global emissions in 2020. As a result, it is crucial to develop efficient networks with higher capacity and reduced power consumption.This project will contribute to more efficient modulators, which will impact communication systems used in ground and satellites to increase capacity, reduce pollution, and improve the environmental sustainability of optical interconnects in aerospace systems, data centers, high-performance computers, and networks.This research will exploit the properties of indium arsenide quantum dots, including1. the radiation and temperature resilience to demonstrate a modulator for aerospace applications: indium arsenide quantum dot's radiation and temperature tolerance will outperform competing developments employing quantum wells, which 1. tolerates 10x and 5x orders of magnitude less radiation and temperature, 2. offers less bandwidth, and 3. high power consumption mainly when operating at high temperatures. This modulator will contribute to substitute current solutions, where heavy, power-hungry, and slow electrical interconnects by light, low-power consumption, and ultra-fast optical interconnects. The research will leverage 1. high-data rates satellite communications underpinning improved services, including fast Internet in remote and rural areas, and 2. the reduced size and weight will improve spacecraft fuel consumption and pollution towards net-zero emission.2. the resilience to threading dislocation, and material stress of quantum dots, will be exploited to grow the modulator over silicon to bring more efficient modulators to the silicon photonic platform. Due to the weak modulating effects in silicon, it is not possible to produce efficient modulators. On the other hand, quantum dots exhibit stronger effects than silicon leveraging more efficient modulators and will outperform current quantum well monolithic integration approaches due to their resilience when grown over silicon. This development will impact the commercial optical interconnects using silicon-based photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and current networks relying on them. By integrating the quantum dot modulator into the existing commercial silicon-based PICs, the performance of ground optical interconnects will be improved, underpinning more efficient networks in data centers, high-performance computers, and the Internet. VTT, a silicon photonic foundry, will provide the silicon PICs.To ensure commercial relevance of the research, this project partners with key industrial players in the aerospace and data/telecom sectors and includes Airbus, ALTER Technology, Bay Photonics, STAR-Dundee and VTT. Additionally, the work will be carried out at the National Epitaxy Facility and the Institute for Compound Semiconductors. Hence, this project is well placed on training researchers in relevant industrial problems, evaluating the technology's commercial relevance, and guiding future developments.