Stabile Ripalta, Albores-Mejia Aaron, Rohit Abhinav, Williams Kevin A
COBRA Institute, Eindhoven University of Technology, Postbus 513, Eindhoven 5600MB, The Netherlands.
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Central 2, 1-1-1 Umezono, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8568, Japan.
Microsyst Nanoeng. 2016 Jan 11;2:15042. doi: 10.1038/micronano.2015.42. eCollection 2016.
Integrated circuit technologies are enabling intelligent, chip-based, optical packet switch matrices. Rapid real-time re-configurability at the photonic layer using integrated circuit technologies is expected to enable cost-effective, energy-efficient, and transparent data communications. InP integrated photonic circuits offer high-performance amplifiers, switches, modulators, detectors, and de/multiplexers in the same wafer-scale processes. The complexity of these circuits has been transformed as the process technologies have matured, enabling component counts to increase to many hundreds per chip. Active-passive monolithic integration has enabled switching matrices with up to 480 components, connecting 16 inputs to 16 outputs. Integrated switching matrices route data streams of hundreds of gigabits per second. Multi-path and packet time-scale switching have been demonstrated in the laboratory to route between multiple fibre connections. Wavelength-granularity routing and monitoring is realised inside the chip. In this paper, we review the current status in InP integrated photonics for optical switch matrices, paying particular attention to the additional on-chip functions that become feasible with active component integration. We highlight the opportunities for introducing intelligence at the physical layer and explore the requirements and opportunities for cost-effective, scalable switching.
集成电路技术正在推动基于芯片的智能光分组交换矩阵的发展。利用集成电路技术在光子层实现快速实时可重构性，有望实现经济高效、节能且透明的数据通信。磷化铟集成光子电路在同一晶圆级工艺中提供高性能放大器、开关、调制器、探测器以及解复用器/复用器。随着工艺技术的成熟，这些电路的复杂性发生了变化，使得每个芯片的元件数量增加到数百个。有源-无源单片集成已实现了具有多达480个元件的交换矩阵，可将16个输入连接到16个输出。集成交换矩阵可路由每秒数百吉比特的数据流。在实验室中已演示了多路径和分组时间尺度交换，以在多个光纤连接之间进行路由。芯片内部实现了波长粒度路由和监测。在本文中，我们回顾了用于光交换矩阵的磷化铟集成光子学的当前状况，特别关注随着有源元件集成而变得可行的额外片上功能。我们强调在物理层引入智能的机会，并探讨经济高效、可扩展交换的要求和机会。
