Amplified silicon photonics

在全球技术发展中，硅上光学功能的集成与集成电路的发明一样重要。所谓的“硅光子学”（SiP）为历史上研究最多的元素的应用增加了一个新的维度。在最基本的层面上，SiP用光量子取代了电子量子，从而在带宽、成本和可扩展性方面实现了显著的性能提升。SiP的潜力似乎是无限的，并将彻底改变所有距离的数据传输。为了在SiP支持的光网络的链路预算管理方面取得重大进展，我们建议研究超越“无损耗”硅光子学（SiP）的高效、低成本和可扩展的光放大集成。这是一项研究计划，其结果将在近期（1-3年，子载波利用率）应用于可部署产品；中期（3-5年，单片稀土放大）和长期（~10年，新的通信窗口稀土放大）。这是通过协调研究实现的，从开发集成单个组件的混合放大器- sip系统开始，然后转向利用我们对片上稀土技术的知识的单片放大方案。我们的目标是在SiP系统中产生~15-20dB的外部光放大，波长在O， C和L波段；加上大约1960纳米，这是一个潜在的未来通信窗口的波长，随着低损耗光纤、光源和SiP接收器技术的发展，目前正处于激烈的研究中。该项目的成功实施将带来颠覆性和变革性的硅光子学技术，这将对加拿大工业的信息和通信技术（ICT）部门产生重大影响。

The integration of optical functionality on silicon is proving to be as important in global technology development as the invention of the integrated circuit. So-called "Silicon Photonics" (SiP) adds a new dimension to the application of the most researched element in history. At its most fundamental level SiP replaces electronic with optical quanta to realize remarkable performance gains in bandwidth, cost and scalability. The potential of SiP appears unbounded and will revolutionize data transfer at all distances. In order to instigate a major advance in link budget management of SiP enabled optical networks we propose research on efficient, low-cost and scalable integration of optical amplification moving beyond "loss-less" Silicon Photonics (SiP). This is a research program that yields results to be applied in deployable products in the near-term (1-3 years, sub-carrier utilization); the mid-term (3-5years, monolithic Rare-Earth amplification) and far-term (~10 years, Rare-Earth amplification for new communication windows). This is achieved by coordinated research which starts by exploiting hybrid amplifier-SiP systems integrating individual components, and moves towards a monolithic amplification scheme which exploits our knowledge of on-chip, Rare-Earth technology. Our aim is to produce external optical amplification of ~15-20dB within SiP systems at wavelengths in the O, C and L bands; plus around 1960nm, a wavelength which centres on a potential future communication window and is currently under intense research following the development of low-loss fibers, optical sources and SiP receiver technology. Successful execution of this project will result in disruptive and transformative Silicon Photonics technology that will significantly impact the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector of Canadian industry.