Silicon microring-based signal modulation for chip-scale optical interconnection

Electro-optic modulation plays a critical role in implementing space-, power- and spectrally efficient optical interconnection for high-capacity computing systems. Microring resonators exhibit a great potential to achieve compact, low power-consumption and high-speed modulators. In this paper, we briefly review our efforts on designing and analyzing the microring modulators. Three types of single-ring modulators are discussed, from device behavior to possible system impact. We then present two novel double-ring modulators in which a passive ring resonator is added, enabling higher operation speed and lower power consumption. We also describe an opportunity of introducing phase modulation data formats into the on-chip communication environment. In this paper, our emphasis is placed on linking the devices’ physics to their system performance and providing potential technical solutions to physical-layer challenges of optical interconnection.

[1]  Peter J. Winzer,et al.  Advanced Optical Modulation Formats , 2006, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[2]  A. Schweinsberg,et al.  Optical transmission characteristics of fiber ring resonators , 2004, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.

[3]  L. Paraschis,et al.  Fiber Bragg Grating Balanced DPSK Demodulation , 2006, LEOS 2006 - 19th Annual Meeting of the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society.

[4]  Electrooptic modulation of multisilicon-on-insulator photonic wires , 2006, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[5]  Keren Bergman,et al.  Building Ultralow-Latency Interconnection Networks Using Photonic Integration , 2007, IEEE Micro.

[6]  V. Van.  Dual-Mode Microring Reflection Filters , 2007, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[7]  E. Ciaramella,et al.  A novel scheme to detect optical DPSK signals , 2004, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[8]  R. Soref,et al.  Electrooptical effects in silicon , 1987 .

[9]  F. Xia,et al.  Group index and group velocity dispersion in silicon-on-insulator photonic wires. , 2006, Optics express.

[10]  Raymond G. Beausoleil,et al.  Nanoelectronic and Nanophotonic Interconnect , 2008, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[11]  H. Haus,et al.  Microring resonator channel dropping filters , 1997 .

[12]  M. Lipson,et al.  Modeling and analysis of high-speed electro-optic modulation in high confinement silicon waveguides using metal-oxide-semiconductor configuration , 2004 .

[13]  Chao Li,et al.  Optical Differential-Phase-Shift-Keying Demodulation Using a Silicon Microring Resonator , 2009 .

[14]  A. Willner,et al.  Generating spectral-efficient duobinary data format from silicon ring resonator modulators , 2008, 2008 34th European Conference on Optical Communication.

[15]  Jung Ho Ahn,et al.  A Nanophotonic Interconnect for High-Performance Many-Core Computation , 2008, 2008 16th IEEE Symposium on High Performance Interconnects.

[16]  Dennis W Prather,et al.  Multiscale free-space optical interconnects for intrachip global communication: motivation, analysis, and experimental validation. , 2006, Applied optics.

[17]  O-Kyun Kwon,et al.  Controlling temperature dependence of silicon waveguide using slot structure. , 2008, Optics express.

[18]  Vladimir Stojanovic,et al.  Silicon photonics for compact, energy-efficient interconnects [Invited] , 2007, Journal of Optical Networking.

[19]  William J. Dally,et al.  Research Challenges for On-Chip Interconnection Networks , 2007, IEEE Micro.

[20]  Qianfan Xu,et al.  Changing the Color of Light in a Silicon Resonator , 2006 .

[21]  Richard Soref,et al.  Analysis of dual-microring-resonator cross-connect switches and modulators. , 2005, Optics express.

[22]  J. Capmany.  Investigation of phase-induced intensity noise in amplified fibre-optic recirculating delay line , 1993 .

[23]  Tymon Barwicz,et al.  Multistage high-order microring-resonator add-drop filters. , 2006, Optics letters.

[24]  Wesley D Sacher,et al.  Dynamics of microring resonator modulators. , 2008, Optics express.

[25]  Bo Zhang,et al.  Coupled-ring-resonator-based silicon modulator for enhanced performance. , 2008, Optics express.

[26]  Chunxin Yang,et al.  Variable Slowlight Buffers in All-Optical Packet Switching Routers , 2008, OFC/NFOEC 2008 - 2008 Conference on Optical Fiber Communication/National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference.

[27]  M. Paniccia,et al.  A high-speed silicon optical modulator based on a metal–oxide–semiconductor capacitor , 2004, Nature.

[28]  H. Haus.  Waves and fields in optoelectronics , 1983 .

[29]  T. Kaneko,et al.  Second-order filter response from parallel coupled glass microring resonators , 1999, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[30]  Ashok V. Krishnamoorthy,et al.  Scaling optoelectronic-VLSI circuits into the 21st century: a technology roadmap , 1996 .

[31]  F. Dell'Olio,et al.  Scaling and Optimization of MOS Optical Modulators in Nanometer SOI Waveguides , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology.

[32]  L. Sekaric,et al.  Ultra-compact, low RF power, 10 Gb/s silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator. , 2007, Optics express.

[33]  Alan E. Willner,et al.  Maximum time delay achievable on propagation through a slow-light medium , 2005 .

[34]  J. Downie,et al.  Relationship of Q penalty to eye-closure penalty for NRZ and RZ signals with signal-dependent noise , 2005, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[35]  M. Morse,et al.  High speed silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator. , 2005, Optics express.

[36]  Mario J. Paniccia,et al.  Interconnects: Wiring electronics with light , 2007 .

[37]  Masaya Notomi,et al.  Wavelength conversion via dynamic refractive index tuning of a cavity , 2006 .

[38]  M. Lipson,et al.  Tailored anomalous group-velocity dispersion in silicon channel waveguides. , 2006, Optics express.

[39]  Michal Lipson,et al.  PINIP based high-speed high-extinction ratio micron-size silicon electrooptic modulator. , 2007, Optics express.

[40]  Qianfan Xu,et al.  Silicon microring resonators with 1.5-μm radius , 2008 .

[41]  Michal Lipson,et al.  Changing the colour of light in a silicon resonator , 2007 .

[42]  S. Yamashita,et al.  Temperature Insensitive Silicon Slot Waveguides with Air Slot , 2008 .

[43]  Lidija Sekaric,et al.  Optical modulation using anti-crossing between paired amplitude and phase resonators. , 2007, Optics express.

[44]  Xuezhe Zheng,et al.  CMOS Integration of Capacitive, Optical, and Electrical Interconnects , 2007, 2007 IEEE International Interconnect Technology Conferencee.

[45]  R. Shenoy,et al.  Design of a silicon-based field-effect electro-optic modulator with enhanced light-charge interaction. , 2005, Optics letters.

[46]  P. Dapkus,et al.  Carrier-induced refractive index changes in InP-based circular microresonators for low-voltage high-speed modulation , 2005, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[47]  A. Yariv.  Universal relations for coupling of optical power between microresonators and dielectric waveguides , 2000 .

[48]  Qianfan Xu,et al.  Micrometre-scale silicon electro-optic modulator , 2005, Nature.

[49]  Alan E Willner,et al.  Embedded ring resonators for microphotonic applications. , 2008, Optics letters.

[50]  Kirk A. Fuller,et al.  Coupled-Resonator-Induced Transparency , 2004 .

[51]  P. Dapkus,et al.  Optical Modulators based on depletion width translation in semiconductor microdisk resonators , 2005, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[52]  M. Lipson.  Guiding, modulating, and emitting light on Silicon-challenges and opportunities , 2005, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[53]  Lin Zhang,et al.  Data quality dependencies in microring-based DPSK transmitter and receiver. , 2008, Optics express.

[54]  Alan E Willner,et al.  Monolithic modulator and demodulator of differential quadrature phase-shift keying signals based on silicon microrings. , 2008, Optics letters.

[55]  Qianfan Xu,et al.  Cascaded silicon micro-ring modulators for WDM optical interconnection. , 2006, Optics express.

[56]  Stephen Farrell,et al.  Optical phase characterization of active semiconductor microdisk resonators in transmission , 2006 .

[57]  I. Lyubomirsky,et al.  DPSK demodulator based on optical discriminator filter , 2005, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[58]  Linjie Zhou,et al.  Silicon microring carrier-injection-based modulators/switches with tunable extinction ratios and OR-logic switching by using waveguide cross-coupling. , 2007, Optics express.

[59]  Sunao Torii,et al.  On-Chip Optical Interconnect , 2009, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[60]  Minghao Qi,et al.  A highly compact third-order silicon microring add-drop filter with a very large free spectral range, a flat passband and a low delay dispersion. , 2007, Optics express.