Hai-Feng Liu

Demonstration of a High Speed 4-Channel Integrated Silicon Photonics WDM Link with Hybrid Silicon Lasers

The demonstration of a 4λ×10Gbps Silicon Photonics CWDM link integrating all optical components, electronics and packaging technologies required for system integration is reported. Further demonstration of the link operating at 50Gbps, 4λ×12.5Gbps, is also shown.

CMOS-compatible, athermal silicon ring modulators clad with titanium dioxide

We present the design, fabrication and characterization of athermal nano-photonic silicon ring modulators. The athermalization method employs compensation of the silicon core thermo-optic contribution with that from the amorphous titanium dioxide (a-TiO(2)) overcladding with a negative thermo-optic coefficient. We developed a new CMOS-compatible fabrication process involving low temperature RF magnetron sputtering of high-density and low-loss a-TiO(2) that can withstand subsequent elevated-temperature CMOS processes. Silicon ring resonators with 275 nm wide rib waveguide clad with a-TiO(2) showed near complete athermalization and moderate optical losses. Small-signal testing of the micro-resonator modulators showed high extinction ratio and gigahertz bandwidth.

25 Gb/s transmission over 820 m of MMF using a multimode launch from an integrated silicon photonics transceiver

A new high bandwidth bend-insensitive MMF optimized for 1310 nm is designed and characterized. 25 Gb/s transmission over a record 820 m length using a multimode launch from an integrated SiPh transceiver at 1310 nm through the new fiber is demonstrated with a power penalty of 3.4 dB at 10(-12) BER. Detailed characteristics of the fiber and transceiver are presented along with BER measurements.

Integrated silicon photonics for optical networks [Invited]

Feature Issue on Nanoscale Integrated Photonics for Optical Networks Fiber optic communication is well established today in long-haul, metro, and some data communication segments. Optical technologies continue to penetrate more into the network owing to the increase in bandwidth demands; however, they still suffer from too expensive solutions. Silicon photonics is a new technology developing integrated photonic devices and circuits based on the unique silicon material that has already revolutionized the face of our planet through the microelectronics industry. This paper reviews silicon photonics technology at Intel, showing how using the same mature, low-cost silicon CMOS technology we develop many of the building blocks required in current and future optical networks. After introducing the silicon photonics motivation for networks, we discuss the various devices--waveguides, modulators, Raman amplifiers and lasers, photodetectors, optical interconnects, and photonic crystals--from the points of view of applications, principle of operation, process development, and performance results.

300m transmission over multimode fiber at 25Gb/s using a multimode launch at 1310nm

We demonstrate the transmission of 25Gb/s multimode optical signals over a record length of 300m multimode fiber designed for high modal bandwidth at 1310nm. The power penalty is 1.8 dB at 10(-12) bit error rate level.

Athermal silicon ring modulators clad with titanium dioxide by RF magnetron sputtering

We present design, fabrication and measurement of athermal silicon ring modulators fabricated on a SOI platform, overclad with 830nm thick amorphous titanium dioxide. Current injection achieves 35 dB extinction intensity modulation.

25 Gbps transmission from a 1310 nm Si photonics transceiver over OM4 fibers using modal dispersion compensation

We demonstrate transmissions of 25Gb/s signals from 1310nm silicon photonics transceiver over OM4 MMF through modal dispersion compensation. With the compensation fiber, ~1dB link power penalty was achieved over 70 and 100m OM4 fiber links.

Integration challenges for optical inteconnects

The package integration of optical components with electronic integrated circuits (ICs) for optical interconnects is a subject of much debate and will, to a large extent, determine the performance of the optical interconnect system. In this paper we examine the challenges of incorporating optical interconnects into a computer system; specifically we cover several ways to integrate the optical components with a central processing unit (CPU) or chipset. Critical performance parameters such as the supported distance, power consumption and the achievable bandwidth are all impacted by the electrical integration between the IC and the optical components. Additional electrical link issues which also have a large impact on the performance of the link will be discussed as well; these include protocol related issues as well as signal integrity concerns, such as the jitter budget. We will also discuss the performance of some of the competing electrical technologies in order to provide a better understanding of the implementation challenge facing the developers of optical interconnect technology. Rack to rack communications are quickly moving to optical links, board to board communication is the next step and chip to chip communication is still further out as the electrical solutions for this topology have a great deal of headroom.