Integrated laser arrays are the key to manufacture and deploy optical interconnected chips on a large scale

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Integrated laser arrays are the key to manufacture and deploy optical interconnected chips on a large scale

June 05 , 2023 0

Intel Research has announced significant progress in its integrated photonics research as the next frontier in increasing bandwidth for connecting computing chips in data centers and across data centers. Recent research has made leading progress in the field of multi-wavelength integrated optics, showing that eight-wavelength distributed feedback (DFB) laser arrays fully integrated on silicon wafers achieve power output uniformity of +/-0.25 dB (dB) and wavelength interval uniformity of ±6.5%, both better than industry norms.

Haisheng Rong, senior principal engineer at Intel Research, said: "The new research shows that the existing production and process control technologies at Intel fabs can achieve uniform and dense wavelengths and good adaptive power output. As such, it provides a clear path to mass production of next-generation photoelectric packaging and optical interconnection devices."

Light sources for future large-scale applications will have the performance required for future large-scale applications, such as light AI that can be used for processing and emerging network intensive workloads. The laser array is based on Intel's 300mm silicon photonic process, paving the way for mass production and widespread deployment.

Silicon photons are expected to be used in more than 20 percent of high-bandwidth channels in data centers by 2025, and less than 5 percent by 2020. In addition, the potential market size of silicon photonics has reached $2.6 billion. In order to support data center applications, the need for low power consumption, high bandwidth, and fast data transmission has brought about a synchronous increase in the demand for silicon photons.

Optical connections began to replace copper wires in the 1980s because of the high bandwidth optical transmission ratio inherent in fiber optics that began to replace copper wires in the 1980s. Since then, fiber optic technology has become more efficient due to the reduction in part size and cost, which has driven breakthroughs in optical Internet solutions over the past few years. It is commonly used in high-performance computing environments such as switches and data centers.

As electrical interconnect performance approaches practical limits, silicon circuits and optics are integrated side-by-side in the same package, promising future improvements in input/output (I/O) transmission distances and extending the energy efficiency of the interface. The photonics are implemented in Intel's fabs, which means the cost of mass production will be reduced.

The latest opto-electronic co-packaging solution uses dense wave segmentation (DWDM). This technology shows the promise of photonic chip sub-chip size while increasing bandwidth. However, until now, it has been difficult to produce dense WDM light sources with wavelength spacing and uniform power.

Intel's new advances ensure uniformity of power output from light sources, maintain consistency in wavelength separation, and meet the needs of optical computing interconnection and intensive wavelength division reuse communications. Optical connectivity can be used for next generation I/O interface AI with high bandwidth requirements for customized machine learning workloads.

Eight microring modulators and optical waveguides. Adjust each microring modulator to a specific wavelength (or) "light color"). Using multiple wavelengths, each microring can independently modulate light waves and realize independent communication. The method of using multiple wavelengths is called wavelength division multiplexing.

Long distributed feedback laser array mm The platform is designed and manufactured by hybrid silicon photonic platform, and mass production of optical transceivers. Under strict process control, the same silicon wafer lithography technology has enabled a major leap in the laser manufacturing capabilities of this innovative CMOS fab.8-channel III-V home/Silicon hybrid distributed feedback laser array. This innovation marks a major leap forward in the multi-wavelength laser capabilities of large fabs by matching power and evenly spaced wavelengths.

In this study, Intel used advanced lithography techniques, and the configuration of waveguide rasters in II-V silicon wafers was done prior to the home-wafer bonding process. Three or four inches. Compared with conventional semiconductor lasers, the III-V technology improves the wavelength uniformity. In addition, because of the laser's high density integration, the array can also maintain the stability of the channel spacing when the ambient temperature changes.

Going forward, Intel, a pioneer in silicon photonics technology, will continue to work on solutions to meet the growing need for more efficient and comprehensive network infrastructure. Intel is currently developing optical generation, amplification, testing and modulation, CMOS integrated interface circuits and packaging.

In addition, Intel's Silicon Photonics Products Division uses many aspects of eight-wavelength integrated laser array manufacturing techniques to create future optical interconnect chips. Upcoming products will include cpus, Gpus among various computing resources in memory, which can achieve low power consumption, high performance and over-interconnection per second. Integrated laser arrays are the key to manufacture and deploy optical interconnected chips on a large scale.