Buffered crossbars have been considered as an alternative for non-buffered crossbars to improve switching throughput. The drawback of a buffered crossbar is the memory amount that is proportional to the square of the number of ports (O N 2 ). This is not the main limitation when the buffer size is kept to a minimum size such that implementation is feasible. For a small buffer size, the number of ports of a switch module is not limited by the memory amount but by the pin count. We propose a novel architecture: a Combined Input-One-cell-Crosspoint Buffer crossbar (CIXB-1) with Virtual Output Queues (VOQs) at the inputs and round-robin arbitration. We show that the proposed architecture can provide 100% throughput under uniform traffic. A CIXB-1 offers several advantages for a feasible implementation such as scalability and timing relaxation. With the currently available memory technology, a one-cell crosspoint buffered switch is feasible for a 32 32 fabric module.

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Abstract-This paper presents a new petabit photonic packet switch architecture, called PetaStar. Using a new multidimensional photonic multiplexing scheme that includes space, time, wavelength, and subcarrier domains, PetaStar is based on a three-stage Clos-network photonic switch fabric to provide scalable large-dimension switch interconnections with nanosecond reconfiguration speed. Packet buffering is implemented electronically at the input and output port controllers, allowing the central photonic switch fabric to transport high-speed optical signals without electrical-to-optical conversion. Optical time-division multiplexing technology further scales port speed beyond electronic speed up to 160 Gb/s to minimize the fiber connections. To solve output port contention and internal blocking in the three-stage Clos-network switch, we present a new matching scheme, called c-MAC, a concurrent matching algorithm for Clos-network switches. It is highly distributed such that the input-output matching and routing-path finding are concurrently performed by scheduling modules. One feasible architecture for the c-MAC scheme, where a crosspoint switch is used to provide the interconnections between the arbitration modules, is also proposed. With the c-MAC scheme, and an internal speedup of 1.5, PetaStar with a switch size of 6400 6400 and total capacity of 1.024 petabit/s can be achieved at a throughput close to 100% under various traffic conditions. Index Terms-Clos network, optical time-division multiplexing (OTDM), packet scheduling, photonic switch.

Photothermal superhydrophobic coatings are essential for a variety of applications including anti‐icing and light‐driven self‐propelled motion. However, achieving a flexible and durable superhydrophobic coating with high photothermal efficiency and long‐term stability is still challenging. Herein, a facile and eco‐friendly approach to realizing a superhydrophobic coating with excellent flexibility is proposed. The coating is obtained by spraying titanium nitride (TiN) nanoparticles embedded in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) solution onto various substrates. A tight binding between the substrate and nanoparticles occurs that offers the coating the mechanical robustness to endure bending, twisting, abrasion, and tape peeling. The water repellency is retained even after 500 cycles of bending–twisting tests. Combined with the micro–nanoscale porous structure of the surface and plasmonic property of TiN nanoparticles, the coating shows excellent superhydrophobicity and high photothermal conversion properties. The equilibrium temperature of the coating is as high as 130 °C at room temperature under 1 W cm−2 of 808 nm near‐infrared laser irradiation. Due to its flexible property, the coating can be easily applied to irregular surfaces, which, together with the excellent anticorrosion, anti‐icing, and defrosting performances, makes it a reliable resource for multifunctional applications. This work offers a novel technological approach to flexible devices, wearable electronics, and smart textiles.

Plasmonic metasurfaces with the photothermal effect have been increasingly investigated for optofluidics. Meanwhile, along with the expanding application of circularly polarized light, a growing number of investigations on chiral plasmonic metasurfaces have been conducted. However, few studies have explored the chirality and the thermal-induced convection of such systems simultaneously. This paper aims to theoretically investigate the dynamics of the thermally induced fluid convection of a chiral plasmonic metasurface. The proposed metasurface exhibits giant circular dichroism in absorption and thus leads to a strong photothermal effect. On the basis of the multiphysical analysis, including optics, thermodynamics, and hydrodynamics, we propose a concept of chiral spectroscopy termed optofluidic circular dichroism. Our results show that different fluid velocities of thermally induced convection appear around a chiral plasmonic metasurface under different circularly polarized excitation. The chiral fluid convection is induced by an asymmetric heat distribution generated by absorbed photons in the plasmonic heater. This concept can be potentially used to induce chiral fluid convection utilizing the chiral photothermal effect. Our proposed structure can potentially be used in various optofluidics applications related to biochemistry, clinical biology, and so on.