Silicon-Photonics Microring Links for Datacenters—Challenges and Opportunities

The rapid growth of warehouse-scale datacenters demands high-throughput optical interconnects that can span short-to-medium reach distances (<; few kilometers). Microring-based silicon-photonics links with single-mode fibers are highly promising for these applications. This paper presents an analysis of microring-based links from the holistic perspective of optical devices, CMOS circuits, and system-level link budget and energy-efficiency simulations. Design considerations and tradeoffs for the receiver, transmitter, and the overall link are presented, and comparisons are made to the mainstream multimode vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser-based links with multi-mode fibers. Finally, research opportunities are highlighted for further improving the energy efficiency of single channel and wavelength division multiplexing-based silicon-photonics links.

[1]  Y. Vlasov,et al.  Ultra-low loss photonic integrated circuit with membrane-type photonic crystal waveguides. , 2003, Optics express.

[2]  Nicolas A. F. Jaeger,et al.  Crosstalk in SOI Microring Resonator-Based Filters , 2016, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[3]  S. Palermo,et al.  A 40 Gb/s PAM4 silicon microring resonator modulator transmitter in 65nm CMOS , 2016, 2016 IEEE Optical Interconnects Conference (OI).

[4]  Saman Saeedi,et al.  A 25Gb/s 170μW/Gb/s optical receiver in 28nm CMOS for chip-to-chip optical communication , 2014, 2014 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium.

[5]  Daniel Mahgerefteh,et al.  Techno-economic comparison of Silicon Photonics and multimode VCSELs , 2016, 2015 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC).

[6]  Jonathan Proesel,et al.  A monolithic 56 Gb/s CMOS integrated nanophotonic PAM-4 transmitter , 2015, 2015 IEEE Optical Interconnects Conference (OI).

[7]  Eduard Säckinger.  Broadband Circuits for Optical Fiber Communication: Säckinger/Broadband , 2005 .

[8]  Shinsuke Tanaka,et al.  High-output-power, single-wavelength silicon hybrid laser using precise flip-chip bonding technology. , 2012, Optics express.

[9]  Roberto Proietti,et al.  High-precision in-situ wavelength stabilization and monitoring of tunable lasers using AWG and PD arrays , 2011, 2011 Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition and the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference.

[10]  Yonghui Tian,et al.  Ultra-low-power carrier-depletion Mach-Zehnder silicon optical modulator. , 2012, Optics express.

[11]  Antonio Santipo,et al.  Hybrid silicon photonic circuits and transceiver for 56Gb/s NRZ 2.2km transmission over single mode fiber , 2014, 2014 The European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC).

[12]  Hui Li,et al.  85-fJ Dissipated Energy Per Bit at 30 Gb/s Across 500-m Multimode Fiber Using 850-nm VCSELs , 2013, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[13]  Will Wilson,et al.  A 20Gb/s NRZ/PAM-4 1V transmitter in 40nm CMOS driving a Si-photonic modulator in 0.13µm CMOS , 2013, 2013 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference Digest of Technical Papers.

[14]  Tymon Barwicz,et al.  An o-band metamaterial converter interfacing standard optical fibers to silicon nanophotonic waveguides , 2015, 2015 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC).

[15]  Jason T. S. Liao,et al.  Optical I/O technology for tera-scale computing , 2009, ISSCC 2009.

[16]  Alireza Samani,et al.  High-speed compact silicon photonic Michelson interferometric modulator. , 2014, Optics express.

[17]  Wei-Zen Chen,et al.  A 25-Gb/s, −10.8-dBm input sensitivity, PD-bandwidth tolerant CMOS optical receiver , 2015, 2015 Symposium on VLSI Circuits (VLSI Circuits).

[18]  Rodolfo Martínez-Manuel,et al.  Wavelength and power stabilization of a three wavelength Erbium doped fiber laser using a nonlinear optical loop mirror , 2015, AFRICON 2015.

[19]  J. Buckwalter,et al.  A 25-Gb/s Monolithic Optical Transmitter With Micro-Ring Modulator in 130-nm SoI CMOS , 2013, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[20]  Andy Eu-Jin Lim,et al.  A silicon platform for high-speed photonics systems , 2012, OFC/NFOEC.

[21]  P. Gothoskar,et al.  Silicon Photonic Modulator Based on a MOS-Capacitor and a CMOS Driver , 2014, 2014 IEEE Compound Semiconductor Integrated Circuit Symposium (CSICS).

[22]  Chen Sun,et al.  A Monolithically-Integrated Chip-to-Chip Optical Link in Bulk CMOS , 2015, IEEE J. Solid State Circuits.

[23]  Ashok V. Krishnamoorthy,et al.  A Monolithic 25-Gb/s Transceiver With Photonic Ring Modulators and Ge Detectors in a 130-nm CMOS SOI Process , 2012, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[24]  Yurii A. Vlasov,et al.  Silicon CMOS-integrated nano-photonics for computer and data communications beyond 100G , 2012, IEEE Communications Magazine.

[25]  M.J. O'Mahony,et al.  Waveband converters based on four-wave mixing in SOAs , 2006, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[26]  Marco Fiorentino,et al.  High efficiency diode comb-laser for DWDM optical interconnects , 2014, 2014 Optical Interconnects Conference.

[27]  Tanaka Shinsuke,et al.  A 25Gb/s Hybrid Integrated Silicon Photonic Transceiver in 28nm CMOS and SOI , 2015 .

[28]  Yang Liu,et al.  22.6 A 25Gb/s 4.4V-swing AC-coupled Si-photonic microring transmitter with 2-tap asymmetric FFE and dynamic thermal tuning in 65nm CMOS , 2015, 2015 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference - (ISSCC) Digest of Technical Papers.

[29]  I. Lyubomirsky,et al.  VCSEL-Based Interconnects for Current and Future Data Centers , 2015, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[30]  Xuezhe Zheng,et al.  High power and widely tunable Si hybrid external-cavity laser for power efficient Si photonics WDM links. , 2014, Optics express.

[31]  Chen Sun,et al.  Addressing link-level design tradeoffs for integrated photonic interconnects , 2011, 2011 IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC).

[32]  Taeho Kim,et al.  A 0.87 W Transceiver IC for 100 Gigabit Ethernet in 40 nm CMOS , 2015, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[33]  Eduard Säckinger,et al.  On the Noise Optimum of FET Broadband Transimpedance Amplifiers , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers.

[34]  Alexander V. Rylyakov,et al.  25Gb/s 3.6pJ/b and 15Gb/s 1.37pJ/b VCSEL-based optical links in 90nm CMOS , 2012, 2012 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference.

[35]  Takayuki Shibasaki,et al.  22.7 4×25.78Gb/s retimer ICs for optical links in 0.13μm SiGe BiCMOS , 2015, 2015 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference - (ISSCC) Digest of Technical Papers.

[36]  Azita Emami-Neyestanak,et al.  A 24-Gb/s Double-Sampling Receiver for Ultra-Low-Power Optical Communication , 2013, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[37]  T. J. Sleboda,et al.  High Contrast 40gbit/s Optical Modulation in Silicon References and Links , 2022 .

[38]  John E. Cunningham,et al.  Power-efficient III-V/silicon external cavity DBR lasers. , 2012, Optics express.

[39]  K. Iga,et al.  Surface-emitting laser-its birth and generation of new optoelectronics field , 2000, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[40]  C L Schow,et al.  High-performance 850 nm VCSEL and photodetector arrays for 25 Gb/s parallel optical interconnects , 2010, 2010 Conference on Optical Fiber Communication (OFC/NFOEC), collocated National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference.

[41]  T. Watanabe,et al.  Spot-size converters for rib-type silicon photonic wire waveguides , 2008, 2008 5th IEEE International Conference on Group IV Photonics.

[42]  E. Bloch,et al.  A highly integrated optical phase-locked loop for laser wavelength stabilization , 2012, IEEE Photonics Conference 2012.

[43]  D.J. Allstot,et al.  Bandwidth Extension Techniques for CMOS Amplifiers , 2006, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[44]  Jeroen De Coster,et al.  Silicon photonics integrated circuits: a manufacturing platform for high density, low power optical I/O's. , 2015, Optics express.

[45]  Ashok V. Krishnamoorthy,et al.  A CMOS-compatible low back reflection grating coupler for on-chip laser sources integration , 2016, 2016 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC).

[46]  A. Emami-Neyestanak,et al.  A 1.6 Gb/s, 3 mW CMOS receiver for optical communication , 2002, 2002 Symposium on VLSI Circuits. Digest of Technical Papers (Cat. No.02CH37302).

[47]  Ashok V. Krishnamoorthy,et al.  12.2% waveguide-coupled wall plug efficiency in single mode external-cavity tunable Si/III–V hybrid laser , 2015, 2015 IEEE Optical Interconnects Conference (OI).

[48]  Ashok V. Krishnamoorthy,et al.  10-Gbps, 5.3-mW Optical Transmitter and Receiver Circuits in 40-nm CMOS , 2012, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[49]  Binhao Wang,et al.  Silicon Photonic Transceiver Circuits With Microring Resonator Bias-Based Wavelength Stabilization in 65 nm CMOS , 2014, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[50]  E. Sackinger,et al.  Broadband Circuits for Optical Fiber Communication , 2005 .

[51]  Nicolas A. F. Jaeger,et al.  Automatic wavelength tuning of series-coupled Vernier racetrack resonators on SOI , 2016, 2016 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC).

[52]  C. L. Schow,et al.  A 55Gb/s directly modulated 850nm VCSEL-based optical link , 2012, IEEE Photonics Conference 2012.

[53]  K. Bergman,et al.  Silicon Photonic Microring Links for High-Bandwidth-Density, Low-Power Chip I/O , 2013, IEEE Micro.

[54]  Jri Lee,et al.  100Gb/s ethernet chipsets in 65nm CMOS technology , 2013, 2013 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference Digest of Technical Papers.

[55]  Yoichi Koyanagi,et al.  22.2 A 25Gb/s hybrid integrated silicon photonic transceiver in 28nm CMOS and SOI , 2015, 2015 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference - (ISSCC) Digest of Technical Papers.

[56]  James E. Jaussi,et al.  Design considerations for low-power receiver front-end in high-speed data links , 2013, Proceedings of the IEEE 2013 Custom Integrated Circuits Conference.

[57]  Marco Fiorentino,et al.  A comb laser-driven DWDM silicon photonic transmitter with microring modulator for optical interconnect , 2015, 2015 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO).