The Intel 50G Silicon Photonics Link

*B.Rajivgandhi, Dept of ECE, boyapatirajivgandhi@gmail.com, **L.Hemasundar, Dept of ECE, lhemasundar@gmail.com YOGANANDA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE

ABSTRACT--

Silicon photonics is rapidly

This paper provides an overview of the state of the art in silicon photonics and outlines challenges that must be overcome before largescale commercialization can occur. In particular, for realization of integration with CMOS very large scale integration (VLSI), silicon photonics must be compatible with the economics of silicon

gaining importance as generic technology platforms for a wide range of applications in telecom, datacom, interconnect and sensing. It allows implementing photonic functions in or above silicon through the use of wafer-scale technologies

normally used for advanced CMOS-processing. In recent years there has been a plethora of in this field, including the

manufacturing and must operate within thermal constraints of VLSI chips. The impact of silicon photonics will reach beyond optical anticipated

breakthroughs

demonstration of ultra-compact passive optical functions, high speed optical modulators and detectors, silicon lasers, all-optical signal processing functions

communication-its

traditionally

application. Silicon has excellent linear and nonlinear optical properties in the midwave infrared (IR) spectrum. These properties, along

After dominating the electronics industry for decades, silicon is on the verge of becoming the material of choice for the photonics industry: the traditional stronghold of III-V semiconductors. Stimulated by a series of recent breakthroughs and propelled by increasing investments by

with silicon's excellent thermal conductivity and optical damage threshold, open up the possibility for a new class of mid-IR photonic devices

KEYWORDS: Photonics, CMOS-Processing,

Optical, Silicon lasers, VLSI

governments and the private sector, silicon photonics is now the most active discipline within the field of integrated optics.

WHAT IS SILICON PHOTONICS AND WHY?

Silicon photonics is the study and application of photonic systems which use silicon as an optical medium. The silicon is usually patterned with sub-micrometer precision, into micro photonic components. These operate in the infrared, most commonly at the 1.55 micrometer wavelength used by most fiber optic

Silicon Photonic gives the idea to build all the components for optical circuits with the CMOS manufacturing processes and eliminate the bottleneck. Extend the optical communication path inside the computer, inside any electronic devices in the path, perhaps even all the way into the microprocessor and memory chips themselves.

telecommunication systems. The silicon typically lies on top of a layer of silica in what (by analogy with a similar construction in microelectronics) is known as silicon on insulator (SOI).

Silicon photonic devices can be made using existing semiconductor fabrication

techniques, and because silicon is already used as the substrate for most integrated circuits, it is possible to create hybrid devices in which the optical and electronic components are integrated onto a single microchip. Consequently, silicon It would be appropriate to assume that photonics is being actively researched keeping on once all components are in place the intelligence track with Moore's Law, by using optical needed to drive an optical circuit can be derived interconnects to provide faster data transfer both from the larger, more costly brethren from which between and within microchips. Fiber optics has a this new technology hails the first steps addressed lot to offer in the speed of data transmission. were the light guides and modulation. Silicon has CMOS manufacturing processes have a lot to offer the in making things smaller, cheaper, and faster. It wavelengths of light in the optical transmission would only make sense that putting these two range. By using Si as the medium and constructing things together would be advantageous surfaces around it, a wave guide can be produced IMPLEMENTATION PHOTONICS: OF SILICON to channel light through a semiconductor circuit. Coupling these wave guides with micro circuitry to characteristic of being transparent to

perform the modulation functions was successfully started in the early 2000s). Today Si-based modulators are performing at 10Gbps speeds.

How does it work?

Digging into the science behind the Silicon Photonics Link, Intel's solution comprises of two key components; the transmitter and receiver chips. Using four Hybrid Lasers on a single transmitter, each of which generates four different wavelengths in four different colors, the chip sends the data to four high-speed 12.5Gbps optical modulators that then couple the four channels onto a single 50Gbps optical fibre.

Intel Contribution:
Mario Paniccia, Intel Fellow and Director Photonics Technology Lab at Intel, which has been a leading player in the integration of electronic and The transmitter chip, depicted above, is built on the foundations of the Hybrid Silicon Laser. Created in collaboration with the University of California, Santa Barbara, the Hybrid Silicon Laser - itself built by bonding Indium Phosphide and Silicon through a low-temperature plasmaenhanced oxidation process - is able to channel the light-emitting capabilities of Indium Phosphide through silicon waveguides. photonic technologies on silicon

Intel has reached an important milestone in its quest to bring Silicon Photonics to the mainstream by creating the world's first siliconbased optical data connection with integrated lasers.

transfers on fibre cables that are typically thinner than a human hair. Commenting on the announcement, Intel's director of the Photonics Technology Lab Dr. Mario Paniccia states that Silicon Photonics is "not a technology that we [Intel] think is 10 years out", adding that he expects to see commercialization in three-to-five years.

What does the future hold?

Intel's vision of the future is one in which optical connections replace today's copper cables. The implications of such a change are obvious for data centres and servers, but Silicon Photonics The connection, dubbed the Intel 50G Silicon Photonics Link, can move data at a rate of 50 billion bits per second (50Gbps) and is being positioned as the next-generation successor to today's widespread copper cables. Building on the breakthroughs of recent years, the 50G Link consists of a silicon transmitter and a receiver chip; both of which utilize previous Intel innovations including the 2006 Hybrid Silicon Laser and high-speed optical modulators and photo detectors from 2007. Bringing the building blocks together, the 50G Link - described at this stage as merely a "concept vehicle" - is able to provide ultra-high-speed data could revolutionize computing in

numerous other ways. Despite admitting that it's currently very difficult for optical links to replace copper traces over short distances (less than six inches), Intel's keen to point out that Silicon Photonics could one day change the way in which everyday computers such as notebooks are designed and created.

Intel's receiver chip, a demultiplexer splits up the four wavelengths into their four original

channels/colours, and silicon germanium photo detectors then convert the signal back to electrons and electrical data.

APPLICATIONS:
Future progress in computer technology is becoming increasingly dependent on ultra-fast data transfer between and within microchips .Some applications of silicon photonics in this field are High speed optical interconnects which is seen as a promising way forward, due to the ability to integrate electronic and optical components on the same silicon chip Another application of silicon photonics is in signal routers micro for optical can

communication potentially Silicon Photonics is the next generation, and, priced in the "same ball-park" as Light peak, is expected to go way beyond the 50Gbps being prototyped today. Scaling up, Intel predicts that the speed of each optical modular will rise

Silicon the

photonics

increase

Internet's

bandwidth

capacity by providing micro-scale, ultra low power devices

exponentially, and there's nothing stopping the technology from growing wider through the addition of more Hybrid Silicon Lasers to each

ADVANTAGES

OVER

OTHER

COMMUNICATIONS:
Silicon micro photonics can potentially

chip. increase the Internet's bandwidth capacity by If Intel's ambition of a Terabit link does come to fruition, you could be backing up your entire PC in under a second. Once received by providing micro-scale, ultra low power devices. Furthermore, the power consumption of datacenters may be significantly reduced

There is no doubt about the economic and technical advantages of silicon and it was inevitable that silicon would be employed wherever optic fiber is deployed. Predictably, with the rise in Internet and data transmission, the need for higher speed, broader bands, and lower cost matches all four of the material benefits provided by silicon:

CONCLUSION:
Although research in the area of planar optics in silicon has been underway for several decades, recent efforts at Intel Corporation have provided better understanding of the capabilities of such devices as silicon modulators, ECLs and SiGe detectors. Incorporating silicon in an ECL opens a

Photonic: transparency,

wide

band

infrared

path towards hybrid silicon photonic integration, or even a Silicon Optical Bench (SiOB) platform for

Electronic:

low

noise,

high

speed

silicon photonics.

integrated circuits, Silicon modulators operating at 2.5 Thermal: high heat conductance, and GHz have demonstrated two orders of magnitude improvement over other known si-based

Structural:

rugged

3-dimensional

platforms and packages

modulators, with theoretical modeling indicating performance capabilities beyond 10 GHz.

FUTURE CHALLENGES: REFERENCES:

The future ahead is Silicon Integrated Nanophotonics which is to develop a technology for on-chip integration of ultra-compact http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_photo nics http://blogs.intel.com/intellabs/2010/07/23 /50g-link/?wapkw=silicon+photonics+link

nanophotonic circuits for manipulating the light signals, similar to the way electrical signals are manipulated in computer chips. Nan scale silicon photonics circuits are being developed to enable the integration of complete optical systems on a monolithic semiconductor chip that would

Optical Fiber Telecommunications: Components and Subsystems by Ivan P.

Kaminow, Tingye Li, Alan E. Willner

eventually allow to overcome severe constraints of todays mostly copper I/O interconnects.

http://books.google.co.in/books? id=NVmnuGREwj4C&printsec=frontcove r&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v= onepage&q&f=false http://silicon-photonics.ief.u-psud.fr/ http://optics.org/indepth/3/2/4

http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/Silic on-Photonics-The-Next-Step http://www03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/3964 1.wss http://www.eetimes.com/design/edadesign/4402970/Silicon-photonics-ushersin-100G-networks