MODetector (MOD): A Dual-Functional Optical Modulator-Detector for On-Chip Communication

📝 Abstract

Physical challenges at the device and interconnect level limit both network and computing energy efficiency. While photonics is being considered to address interconnect bottlenecks, optical routing is still limited by electronic circuitry, requiring substantial overhead for optical-electrical-optical conversion. Here we show a novel design of an integrated broadband photonic-plasmonic hybrid device termed MODetector featuring dual light modulation and detection function to act as an optical transceiver in the photonic network-on-chip. With over 10 dB extinction ratio and 0.8 dB insertion loss at the modulation state, this MODetector provides 0.7 W/A responsivity in the detection state with 36 ps response time. This multi-functional device: (i) eliminates OEO conversion, (ii) reduces optical losses from photodetectors when not needed, and (iii) enables cognitive routing strategies for network-on-chips.

💡 Analysis

Physical challenges at the device and interconnect level limit both network and computing energy efficiency. While photonics is being considered to address interconnect bottlenecks, optical routing is still limited by electronic circuitry, requiring substantial overhead for optical-electrical-optical conversion. Here we show a novel design of an integrated broadband photonic-plasmonic hybrid device termed MODetector featuring dual light modulation and detection function to act as an optical transceiver in the photonic network-on-chip. With over 10 dB extinction ratio and 0.8 dB insertion loss at the modulation state, this MODetector provides 0.7 W/A responsivity in the detection state with 36 ps response time. This multi-functional device: (i) eliminates OEO conversion, (ii) reduces optical losses from photodetectors when not needed, and (iii) enables cognitive routing strategies for network-on-chips.

📄 Content

MODetector (MOD): A Dual-Functional Optical Modulator- Detector for On-Chip Communication SHUAI SUN1, RUOYU ZHANG1, JIAXIN PENG1, VIKRAM NARAYANA1, HAMED DALIR2, TAREK EL- GHAZAWI1, AND VOLKER J. SORGER1 1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052 USA 2Omega Optics, Inc., 8500 Shoal Creek Blvd., Bldg. 4, Suite 200, Austin, TX 78757, USA sorger@gwu.edu Abstract: Physical challenges at the device and interconnect level limit both network and computing energy efficiency. While photonics is being considered to address interconnect bottlenecks, optical routing is still limited by electronic circuitry, requiring substantial overhead for optical-electrical-optical conversion. Here we show a novel design of an integrated broadband photonic-plasmonic hybrid device termed MODetector featuring dual light modulation and detection function to act as an optical transceiver in the photonic network-on-chip. With over 10 dB extinction ratio and 0.8 dB insertion loss at the modulation state, this MODetector provides 0.7 W/A responsivity in the detection state with 36 ps response time. This multi- functional device: (i) eliminates OEO conversion, (ii) reduces optical losses from photodetectors when not needed, and (iii) enables cognitive routing strategies for network-on-chips.

References 1. S Borkar, “State-of-the-art electronics,” presented at the Session 3 Panel Talk, NSF Workshop Emerging Technologies Interconnects, Washington, DC, USA, Feb. 2–3, 2012. [Online]. Available: http://weti.cs.ohiou.edu/shekhar_weti.pdf
2. M. Ujaldon, “A look ahead: Echelon,” NVIDIA Slides. [Online]. Available: http://gpu.cs.uct.ac.za/Slides/Echelon.pdf 3. Liu, K., Sun, S., Majumdar, A., & Sorger, V. J. (2016). Fundamental scaling laws in nanophotonics. Scientific reports, 6. 4. Miller, D. A. (2009). Device requirements for optical interconnects to silicon chips. Proceedings of the IEEE, 97(7), 1166-1185.
5. Miller, D. A. (2017). Attojoule optoelectronics for low-energy information processing and communications. Journal of Lightwave Technology, 35(3), 346-396.
6. Sun, S., Badawy, A. H. A., Narayana, V., El-Ghazawi, T., & Sorger, V. J. (2015). The case for hybrid photonic plasmonic interconnects (HyPPIs): Low- latency energy-and-area-efficient on-chip interconnects. IEEE Photonics Journal, 7(6), 1-14. 7. Narayana, V. K., Sun, S., Badawy, A. H. A., Sorger, V. J., & El-Ghazawi, T. (2017). MorphoNoC: Exploring the design space of a configurable hybrid NoC using nanophotonics. Microprocessors and Microsystems, 2017. 8. Mehrabian, A., Sun, S., Narayana, V. K., Sorger, V. J., & El-Ghazawi, T. (2017). D3NOC: Dynamic Data-Driven Network On Chip in Photonic Electronic Hybrids. arXiv preprint arXiv:1708.06721. 9. Narayana, V. K., Sun, S., Mehrabian, A., Sorger, V. J., & El-Ghazawi, T. (2017). HyPPI NoC: Bringing Hybrid Plasmonics to an Opto-Electronic Network-on-Chip. 46th International Conference on Parallel Processing (ICPP), Bristol, United Kingdom, 2017, pp. 131-140. 10. C. J. Nitta, M. K. Farrens, and V. Akella, On-Chip Photonic Interconnects: A Computer Architect’s Perspective (book), Synthesis Lectures on Computer Architecture series. Morgan & Claypool Publishers, 2013. 11. Marom, D. M., & Blau, M. (2015). Switching solutions for WDM-SDM optical networks. IEEE Communications Magazine, 53(2), 60-68. 12. Batten, C., Joshi, A., Orcutt, J., Khilo, A., Moss, B., Holzwarth, et al. (2009). Building many-core processor-to-DRAM networks with monolithic CMOS silicon photonics. IEEE Micro, 29(4). 13. Wassel, H. M., Dai, D., Tiwari, M., Valamehr, J. K., Theogarajan, L., Dionne, J., et al. (2012). Opportunities and challenges of using plasmonic components in nanophotonic architectures. IEEE Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems, 2(2), 154-168. 14. Min, R., Ji, R., Chen, Q., Zhang, L., & Yang, L. (2012). A universal method for constructing N-port nonblocking optical router for photonic networks- on-chip. Journal of Lightwave Technology, 30(23), 3736-3741. 15. Sun, S., Narayana, V. K., Sarpkaya, I., Crandall, J., Soref, R. A., Ei-Ghazawi, T., & Sorger, V. J. (2017). Hybrid Photonic-Plasmonic Non-blocking Broadband 5x5 Router for Optical Networks. arXiv preprint arXiv:1708.07159. 16. Dynamic Data-Driven Applications Systems. [Online]. Available: http://www.1dddas.org 17. Ye, C., Liu, K., Soref, R. A., & Sorger, V. J. (2015). A compact plasmonic MOS-based 2× 2 electro-optic switch. Nanophotonics, 4(3), 261-268. 18. Ma, Z., Li, Z., Liu, K., Ye, C., & Sorger, V. J. (2015). Indium-tin-oxide for high-performance electro-optic modulation. Nanophotonics, 4(1), 198-213. 19. Mrejen, M., Suchowski, H., Hatakeyama, T., Wu, C., Feng, L., et al. (2015). Adiabatic elimination-based coupling control in densely packed subwavelength waveguides. Nature communications, 6. 20. Sorger, V. J., Lanzillotti-Kimura, N. D., Ma, R. M., & Zhang, X. (201

This content is AI-processed based on ArXiv data.