Monolithic, Reconfigurable, Parallel, Two-Dimensional, Optical Interconnections for Optical Communications and Computing Systems

Authors: Julian Cheng; NEW MEXICO UNIV ALBUQUERQUE CENTER FOR HIGH TECHNOLOGY MATERIALS

Abstract:

The development of a novel optical switching technology that uses compact, integrated optoelectronic switch arrays to provide parallel optical interconnections between electronic processing elements in a dynamically reconfigurable manner, gives rise to a very compact and very-high-information- throughput optical interconnect architecture. The technology is based on the monolithic integration of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) with other photonic and electronic technologies, including heterojunction phototransistors (HPTs) and photothyristors (PNPNs), PIN and MSM photodiodes, and heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs). The integration of VCSELs with other photonic and electronic components produced novel optoelectronic devices and circuits with a host of potential applications. Combining VCSELs with heterojunction phototransistors (HPTs) and photothyristors produced high performance optical switches with alternatively latching, non-latching, or bistable switching characteristics. Latching PNPN/VCSEL switches performed programmable optical logic functions, while the non-latching HPT/VCSEL optical switches performed optical switching and spatial routing operations. Reconfigurable binary HPT/VCSEL optical switches have been designed that can spatially re-route optical data controllably to different destinations. Arrays of these switches were optically cascaded to form a multi-stage optical switching network that provided parallel, multi-point optical interconnections between electronic processors, allowing them to communicate with each other through a network of integrated optoelectronic transceivers and space-division- multiplexed optical switches at a data rate of greater than 500 Mb/s.

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APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE