Advanced micro-opto-electro-mechanical systems for elastic optical telecommunications networks

人工智能的进步和物联网的发展推动了新的数字业务的出现，要求接入和数据通信网络不断增加容量。光学技术已经证明，它们可以在长途网络中实现数太比特带宽的链路。然而，这些技术过于昂贵，无法部署在短距离网络中。此外，为了分摊建立高容量光网络所需的投资，服务提供商正在寻找能够支持来自消费者、企业和无线接入（即5G）应用的不同类型流量的解决方案。因此，下一代光技术必须实现灵活的网络。为了给网络设备制造商提供经济有效的解决方案，四年前，蒙特利尔魁北克大学和École de Technologie supsamrieure的研究人员开始与AEPONYX公司合作，开发一种新型的硅光子微加工平台，集成了微机电执行器和氮化硅基光波导。这项工作在一种新型光空间开关的演示中达到高潮。然而，它也强调了改进平台的挑战和机遇。拟议的项目将探索如何利用平台的容量来创建新的可调谐光滤波器，可以调整其带宽和中心波长，因为它们是未来弹性光网络的关键构建块。此外，它还将研究如何通过在平台上实现新功能来促进集成光学芯片的封装。这项研究项目的好处预计将超出电信网络的改善，因为采用这种新平台建造的设备可以在许多其他领域找到应用，包括环境传感和医学成像。此外，在研究项目中接受培训的人员将获得宝贵的先进设计和制造技能。拟培养研究助理1人，博士后3人，博士4人，硕士2人，本科生4人。

The emergence of new digital services fueled by the progress in artificial intelligence and the development of the internet of things requires access and datacom networks to continuously increase their capacity. Optical technologies have demonstrated that they can enable links with several terabits of bandwidth in long-haul networks. However, these technologies are too expensive to be deployed in short reach networks. Furthermore, to amortize the investment needed to setup high capacity optical networks, service providers are looking for solutions that can support different types of traffic from consumer, business, and wireless access (i.e. 5G) applications. Therefore the next generation of optical technologies must enable flexible networks. In order to provide affordable and efficient solutions to networking equipment manufacturer, four years ago researchers from the University of Quebec at Montreal and École de Technologie Supérieure began a collaboration with the company AEPONYX to develop a novel silicon photonic microfabrication platform integrating microelectromechanical actuators and silicon nitride-based optical waveguides. This work culminated in the demonstration of a new optical space switch. However, it also highlighted challenges and opportunities to improve the platform. The proposed project will explore how the capacity of the platform can be leveraged to create novel tunable optical filters that can adjust their bandwidth and central wavelength since they are key building blocks for future elastic optical networks. Moreover, it will investigate how the packaging of integrated optical chips can be facilitated by implementing new functionalities on the platform. The benefits of this research projects are expected to go beyond the improvement of telecommunication networks since devices built with the novel platform could find applications in many other areas, including environmental sensing and medical imaging. Furthermore, the people trained during the research program will gain valuable advanced design and manufacturing skills. The proposed program will train 1 research assistant, 3 post-doctoral researchers, 4 PhDs, 2 Master's and 4 undergraduate students.