Inverse-designed multi-dimensional silicon photonic transmitters

Abstract

Modern microelectronic processors have migrated towards parallel computing architectures with many-core processors. However, such expansion comes with diminishing returns exacted by the high cost of data movement between individual processors. The use of optical interconnects 1,2 has burgeoned as a promising technology that can address the limits of this data transfer. While recent pushes to enhance optical communication have focused on developing wavelength-division multiplexing technology, this approach will eventually saturate the usable bandwidth, and new dimensions of data transfer will be paramount to fulfill the ever-growing need for speed 3-6 . Here we demonstrate an integrated intra-and inter-chip multi-dimensional communication scheme enabled by photonic inverse design. Using broad-band inverse-designed mode-division multiplexers, we combine wavelength-and mode-multiplexing of data at a rate exceeding terabit-per-second. Crucially, as we take advantage of an orthogonal optical basis, our approach is inherently scalable to a multiplicative enhancement over the current state of the art.

Towards 3D-Printed Inverse-Designed Metaoptics

“…Inverse design is a particularly attractive technique for tasks that do not have intuitive physical solutions, but also for multi-constrained tasks [35][36][37], such as plan-achromatic focusing or multi-angle concentration of light. While a human might know how to design a close-to-optimal structure for a single constraint, a gradient-based numerical optimization method has the ability to systematically and efficiently traverse a vast design space and identify an optimized design satisfying multiple constraints at the same time.…”

Petabit-Scale Silicon Photonic Interconnects With Integrated Kerr Frequency Combs

“…While the work described here focused exclusively on extreme scaling in the wavelength domain, we have recently demonstrated a mode-division multiplexing (MDM) interface between silicon photonic chips and fewmode fiber [103], [104], leveraging the spatial mode domain as an orthogonal axis for multiplicative WDM and MDM scaling. Various WDM-compatible MDM architectures have been demonstrated in the silicon photonics platform [25], [105], which can be trivially extended to accommodate the WDM architectures described in this work. Achieving Pb/s package escape bandwidths will be crucial for continued scaling of computing systems to keep pace with exponentially growing demand over the next quarter century and beyond.…”

Multiscale Optical Field Manipulation via Planar Digital Optics

“…In addition, recent years have seen significant advances in guided-mode conversion applications. One direct method is matching the refractive index difference between different modes by the phase gradient induced equivalent wavevector. , Nevertheless, for complex and multifunctional devices, an inverse design strategy is preferred due to the high freedom-of-degree of subwavelength structures. − …”