THE 50G SILICON NANOPHOTONICS LINK

(The worlds first silicon based Optical Link which uses Integrated lasers for Data Transmission)

PRESENTED BY: Author : T Venkat sai kiran reddy, 3rd Year B.Tech, ECE.

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NARAYANA ENGINEERING COLLEGE NELLORE

ABSTRACT

Embedded Technology continues to follow Moores Law of perpetually advancing computational performance within systems and devices. With an increasing number of cores, integrated circuits (ICs) have maintained their progression of datacrunchingcapabilities. This is enabling the creation and advancement of everything from scalable cloud datacenters to new high-performance computing (HPC) applications to more powerful consumer devices. Silicon Photonics Link, the worlds first silicon-based optical data connection with integrated lasers instead of metal or copper wires. It uses lasers to send light rays across optical fibers, transporting data between two silicon chips at extremely high speeds, across sizeable distances and with relative immunity to noise. The primary benefit of using light rather than an electric signal over copper wiring is significantly greater capacity and speed. Light waves can encode and deliver data significantly farther and faster than copper, and glass fiber can transmit numerous light waves simultaneously. The first tera-scale optical microchip which is far superior to conventional methods of data transfer is used. Conventional processes work with bandwidths between 10 and 40 Gbit/s. A tera-scale microchip has a transfer rate of 1 Tbit/s. An optical microchip functions in a similar way to a conventional chip, except that its conductor paths are not made from metal, and that data is not transferred in the form of electrons. Rather, photons are transported through the silicon in light ducts,

referred to as waveguides. To a large extent, an optical microchip is made of three components: a modulator that converts electronic data into light, a laser which acts as a light pump to send the photons through the silicon, and a demodulator that converts the photons back into electronic impulses. The complete link includes two silicon chips, an integrated transmitter and an integrated receiver, with all the necessary optical technologies from previous breakthroughs. It is composed of four optical channels, each running at 12.5 Gbps, which are combined onto a single fiber to transmit data up to 50 Gbps with Terabit speeds on the horizon. I. INTRODUCTION

No one likes to wait. Particularly if they are in a hurry. Wouldn't it be great if files from the Internet really were available on demand? If videos could be shown immediately without buffering? If synchronizing mobile phones with a PC or uploading to an iPod ,would no longer be painfully slow, but rather over in fractions of a second? Innovations over recent years have enormously increased the speed of computational processes, as well as Internet bandwidths. However, the technologies that are currently in use for data transfer are already encountering their physical limits. We have reached the end of the line, so that new innovations are called for. There are two areas in which a new technology is needed in order to be able to maintain the past speed of innovation into the future as well.

Firstly, data transfer via the Internet; secondly, microchips. 2010 marks the 50th anniversary of the laser and 51st anniversary of the IC. During the past few years, researchers at Intel have been actively exploring the use of silicon as the primary basis of photonic components. This research has established a specialized field called Silicon Photonics, which appears poised to provide solutions that break through longstanding limitations of silicon as a material for fiber optics. Silicon photonics is an end-to-end program to extend Moores Law into new areas. In addition to this research, Intels expertise in fabricating processors from silicon could enable it to create inexpensive, high performance photonic devices that comprise numerous components integrated on one silicon die. II. DATA TRANSFER VIA INTERNET AND WITH IN COMPUTERS Data streams within the Internet have now reached immense proportions, and data traffic is growing from day to day. Just consider YouTube*, which more and more people are using to share more and more data with others and that is only one data intensive application amongst many. At the same time, the quality of content such as HD videos, and thereby their file size, are increasing continuously. The result is a data traffic jam on the digital superhighway or more precisely: at its "exits". data transfer within and between

When data is sent via the Internet, it needs to be sorted by means of a kind of distribution station (routers and switches), then forwarded to the correct recipient. At present, this job is undertaken in a convoluted manner by complex computer hardware, which is sooner or later going to hit the buffers. Generally speaking, the data reaches the distributor in the form of photons sent via fiberglass cables. In the distributor, it is converted into electronic signals (electrons), sorted, converted back into photons and sent on its way via another fiberglass cable. This is laborious, expensive and takes a lot of energy. Data on microchips is transferred via metal conductor paths, for example between the individual processor cores or the processor and the main memory. However, processors are now able to process so much data in such a small time that the conductor paths will soon be unable to carry data fast enough. And what is the use of an extremely fast processor core if it cannot transfer its data as quickly as it has done the calculations? New transfer technology would not only permit extreme performance increases, but also act as the midwife for completely novel devices. An optical chip, for example, that could process photons directly would work much faster and use less energy. In this way, the 19-inch cabinets stacked as tall as a man with electronic components could be replaced by a single small chip tomorrow.

III.

SILICON PHOTONICS

IV.

CONTINUOUS SILICON HYBRID LASERS

Silicon has numerous qualities that make it a desirable material for constructing small, low cost, optical components: it is a relatively inexpensive, plentiful, and well understood material for producing electronic devices. In addition, due to the longstanding use of silicon in the semiconductor industry, the fabrication tools by which it can be processed into small components are commonly available today. Photonics is the field of study that deals with light, especially the development of components for optical communications. It is the hardware aspect of fiber optics, and due to commercial demand for bandwidth, it has enjoyed considerable expansion and development during the past decade. Fiber-optic communication, as most people know, is the process of transporting data at high speeds using light, which travels to its destination on a glass fiber. Fiber optics is well established today due to the great capacity and reliability it provides. However, fiber optics has suffered from its reputation as an expensive solution. This view is based in large part on the high price of the hardware components. The 50G Silicon Photonics Link ,instead of metal or copper wires, it uses lasers to send light rays across optical fibers, transporting data between two silicon chips at extremely high speeds, across sizeable distances and with relative immunity to noise.

The Raman Effect is widely used today to make amplifiers and lasers in glass fiber. These devices are built by directing a laser beam known as the pump beam into a fiber. As the light enters, the photons collide with vibrating atoms in the material and, through the Raman Effect; energy is transferred to photons of longer wavelengths. If a data beam is applied at the appropriate wavelength, it will pick up additional photons. After traveling several kilometers in the fiber, the beam acquires enough energy to cause a significant amplification of the data signal. By reflecting light back and forth through the fiber, the repeated action of the Raman Effect can produce a pure laser beam.

However, fiber-based devices using the Raman Effect are limited because they require kilometers of fiber to provide sufficient amplification. The Raman Effect is more than 10,000 times stronger in

silicon than in glass optical fiber, making silicon an advantageous material. Instead of kilometers of fiber, only centimeters of silicon are required. By using the Raman Effect and an optical pump beam, silicon can now be used to make useful amplifiers and lasers. V. TWO PHOTON ABSORPTION

not have enough energy to excite an electron. Occasionally, however, two photons arrive at the atom at the same time in such a way that the combined energy is enough to free an electron from an atom. Usually, this is a very rare occurrence. However, the higher the pump power, the more likely it is to happen. Eventually, these free electrons recombine with the crystal lattice and pose no further problem. However, at high power densities, the rate at which the free electrons are created exceeds the rate of recombination and they build up in the waveguide. Unfortunately, these free electrons begin absorbing the light passing through the silicon waveguide and diminish the power of these signals. The end result is a loss significant enough to cancel out the benefit of Raman amplification.

Increasing the pump power beyond a certain point no longer increased the amplification and eventually even decreased it. The reason turned out to be a physical process called two-photon absorption, which absorbs a fraction of the pump beam and creates free electrons. These electrons build up over time and collect in the waveguide. The problem is that the free electrons absorb some of the pump and signal beams, reducing the net amplification. The higher the power density in the waveguide, the higher the loss incurred.

VI. Silicon is transparent to infrared light, meaning atoms do not absorb photons as they pass through the silicon because the infrared light does

OPTICAL MICROCHIPS

The optical microchips are made from silicon just like conventional microchips. An optical microchip functions in a similar way to a

conventional chip, except that its conductor paths are not made from metal, and that data is not transferred in the form of electrons. Rather, photons are transported through the silicon in light ducts, referred to as waveguides. To a large extent, an optical microchip is made of three components: a modulator that converts electronic data into light, a laser which acts as a light pump to send the photons through the silicon, and a demodulator that converts the photons back into electronic impulses. A downstream, passive multiplexer (mux) combines the four light streams and their associated data onto a single fiber optic cable, or waveguide. VIII. INTEGRATED TRANSMITTER CHIP

VII.

HIGH-SPEED SILICON MODULATION A laser creates a beam of light onto which a

modulator encodes data. The light is then transported via a glass fiber to a destination of interest. Fibers often carry multiple wavelengths of light simultaneously each one encoded with its own data stream. These wavelengths are combined by a device called a multiplexer and placed on the fiber, as shown.

The

simplest

method

of

performing

integrated receiver chip collect the light and convert it into an electrical data stream.

modulation (the process of encoding data onto a wavelength of light) is to turn the laser on and off at high speeds (on representing a 1 bit, off a 0 bit).Rather than turning the laser on and off, this all silicon modulator uses a technique called phase shifting to encode the data by changing the brightness of the lightwave. The modulator breaks the light beam into two smaller beams. It then makes the lightwaves of one beam out of sync (that is, out of phase) with those of the other; then, it merges the beams back together. This unified lightwave bears the imprints of both beams, which results in the light appearing to go and off. This on-and-off activity is then translated into patterns of 1s and 0s. As shown in the figure, the phase shifting amplifies the light at certain points and negates it at others: hence the waves amplitude (how strong or bright it is at any given moment) is modulated. When light is emitted it travels in a pattern that looks very much like a sine wave. See how the peak of the top wave on the right has a value of +1.When it is aligned with the trough of the lower wave, which has a value of -1, the net result is 0: the peak and trough offset each other exactly. In this case, the two lightwaves cancel each other out and the resulting lightwave is off for the duration of these two sine waves. At the other end of the link, a demultiplexer (de-mux) and set of four photodetectors on the

The Integrated Silicon Photonics Link adheres to the following steps of operation: 1. Generate light at distinct wavelengths 2. Transform electrical signals into photonic signals 3. Multiplex photonic channels onto single fiber 4. Separate photonic channels 5. Detect photons and convert back to electrical signals IX. INTEGRATED RECEIVER CHIP

coating in order to absorb the light. When the laser pulses strike the demodulator, they are absorbed by the germanium layer, thereby causing electronic pulses to be created. These pulses are passed on to the silicon where they are amplified and can then be processed electrically. X. APPLICATIONS AND BENEFITS

The system and application possibilities of silicon-based laser interconnects are nothing less than transformational. Today, systems must be self-contained and components must be closely positioned due to the bandwidth and distance shortcomings of wire-based connections. Low cost fiber-optics will allow computer makers to completely rethink traditional system designs. By separating processing, memory and graphics capabilities, designers can move beyond discrete computing systems to deliver greater processing capabilities to a wider array of devices and computing environments. This design flexibility will positively influence energy efficiency, systems performance and the cost of development and ownership on a broad scale. It will also fuel widespread innovation and the advancement of: Computing applications, from Gigabit to Terabit

The photons are converted back into electrons by the demodulator, the last missing component of an optical microchip. The demodulator is made up of a silicon core, but has a special germanium

Cloud datacenters Throughput intensive applications in scientific computing

 Ultra-high resolution 3D applications for future consumer electronics XI. SUMMARY

The 50G Silicon Photonics Link brings together the unique attributes of laser and IC technologies. A single set of transmitter and receiver chips can deliver 50 Gbps bandwidth over long distances with extremely low error rates. Bandwidth can scale up in modulation speed and scale out by integrating more optical channels into the link, providing a clear path to Terabit I/O connections. Because it is developed using silicon XII. ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to greatly acknowledge the contributions of the entire processing team at Micron Technologies for their hard work enabling the silicon photonics fabrication and the work of the Aurrion LLC team and Intel Labs in fabricating the hybrid silicon lasers and Professor John Bowers for his continued discussions on hybrid laser physic is also greatly appreciated. XIII. REFERENCES

manufacturing methodologies, the link can be utilized for high volume applications with minimal process complexity or cost. And instead of active alignment between the chip and fiber, the link takes advantage of passive packaging. This eliminates the need for discrete manufacturing and alignment, dramatically reducing the time and cost of assembly. Silicon photonics technologies will fuel the prospects of hardware innovation, enabling developers to: Realize cost-effective deployment across multiple applications. Increase bandwidth in multiple directions, from 50 Gbps to tera-scale levels.

JOURNAL REFERENCES: [1] Alexander W. Fang, Matthew N. Sysak, Brian R. Koch, Richard Jones, Erica Lively, YingHao Kuo, Di Liang, Omri Raday, and John E. Bowers Single-Wavelength Silicon Evanescent Lasers, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, Vol. 15, No. 3, May/June 2009 [2] L. Liao, A. Liu, D. Rubin, J. Basak, Y. Chetrit, H. Nguyen, R. Cohen, N. Izhaky, and M. Paniccia, 40 Gbit/s silicon optical modulator for high speed applications, Electronics Letters, Vol. 43, No. 22, 25th October 2007

[3] T. Yin, R. Cohen, M. Morse, G. Sarid, Y. Chetrit, D. Rubin, and M. Paniccia, 31GHz Ge n-ip waveguide photodetectors on Silicon-on-Insulator substrate, Opt. Express 17, 13965-13971 (2007).

WEBSITES: www.research.ibm.com/photonics

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_photonics
www.ntt.co.jp/milab/en/project/pr01_si.html www.intel.com/go/sp/