Speeding up intra-system data transfer through optical data links and minimizing energy demand by a new generation of integrated circuits

Project Information

IC2020

Grant agreement ID: 956494

DOI

10.3030/956494

Project closed

EC signature date 28 August 2020

Start date 27 November 2020

End date 26 November 2021

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 135 000,00

Coordinated by

VI SYSTEMS GMBH
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - IC2020 (Speeding up intra-system data transfer through optical data links and minimizing energy demand by a new generation of integrated circuits)

Reporting period: 2020-11-27 to 2021-11-26

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The application of cutting-edge computing technologies demand high-performance data transfer between processors, memory and peripherals. The limiting factor nowadays (and for future scaling) is the data transfer within the system, specifically, by the following factors: bandwidth, power, and space.
Facing the challenge of continued scaling and data transmission capacity requires data rates >200Gb/s, the industry needs a new generation of laser chips. To develop those, some further optimized ICs are most important. The IC development is outsourced by VIS with a significant supervising effort. Main objective of the project was to hire and integrate an highly specialized IC design expert to finally extend the IC performance in the company.

The work is important for society to expand the capabilities in areas such as augmented/virtual reality or artificial intelligence in consumer products and industry applications. It is also valid for areas such as self-driving cars and industrial data centers.

The target was that the laser diode (VCSEL) could be enabled to transmit 224Gb/s with PAM-4 modulation in a single channel transmission scheme with an energy consumption of 1mW/Gbps. These targets represented a triple speed performance and -50% energy demand from the status of available products.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The work performed includes analysis of opto-electrical parameters of short-reach optical interconnect concept based on higher order modulation (DMT) and (PAM) in combination with four channel short wavelength division multiplexing (SWDM). The HF characterization of high-speed VCSELs at 850 nm, 880 nm, 910 nm and 940 nm and PINs and circuit model parameter extraction were performed to enable design and optimization of driver and amplifier ICs. A significant effort was made towards the development of photonic integrated chips (PICs) such as compact VCSEL mini-arrays for high-speed data transfer. Coherent lasing in such integrated assemblies of oxide-confined VCSEL apertures was realized and the current and voltage driving conditions of such PICs were revealed. Electric and optical parameters such as intrinsic optical bandwidth, electric parasitic bandwidth, capacitance and resistance versus drive current were defined and used for further design optimization aiming photon-photon resonance engineering.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Conference proceedings in 2021 coauthored, by Dr. M. Bou Sanayeh:

1. Ledentsov et al “High Speed VCSEL: Technology and Applications.” (invited tutorial) The Optical Networking and Communication Conference & Exhibition, 06 – 11 June 2021. The Virtual Conference and Exhibition. Presentation slides.

2. Ledentsov Jr. et al “Novel multi-aperture VCSELs for optical wireless and multimode fiber communication” 2021 27th International Semiconductor Laser Conference (ISLC), 2021, pp. 1-2, doi: 10.1109/ISLC51662.2021.9615778. Abstracts 27th Int. Semiconductor Laser Conference, 10-14 October 2021, Potsdam, Germany; MA1.3

3. Ledentsov et al "Frequency characteristics of the polarization self‐modulation in oxide-confined vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers," Proc. SPIE 11805, Spintronics XIV, 118050X (1 August 2021);

Conference contributions which describe the progress beyond the state of the art accepted for 2022:

1. Ledentsov et al (2022) “VCSEL-based multicore fiber interconnects with aggregate data transmission up to 600 Gbps” accepted paper at Photonics West Conference 2022 (22-27 January, 2022)

2. Ledentsov et al (2022) “Up to 600 Gbit/s data transmission over 100 m of single multi-mode fiber using 4×λ 850-940 nm VCSELs" (Tu2D.3) was accepted at OFC 2022 (06 – 10 March 2022).


It is expected that the technical achievements accelerate the development in the target areas such as artificial intelligence in consumer products and industry applications and industrial data centers.

A ×4 aperture mini-array VCSEL chip suitable for coherent single mode lasing at high data rates