High-throughput silicon nanophotonic wavelength-insensitive switch for on-chip optical networks

doi:doi:10.1038/nphoton.2008.31

Recent advances in silicon nanophotonics, including demonstrations of ultracompact modulators^1,^2,^3,⁴, germanium waveguide photodetectors^5,^6,⁷ and wavelength-division multiplexers^8,^9,¹⁰, indicate the feasibility of on-chip optical interconnects integrated with multicore microprocessors^11,^12,^13,¹⁴. Studies^13,¹⁴ have suggested that direct replacement of part or all of the electrical interconnect wiring with point-to-point optical links^11,¹² may not provide sufficient power savings to make this approach attractive to chip designers. However, if high-bandwidth optical signals can be switched and routed using an on-chip silicon nanophotonic interconnection network, significant performance gains can be expected^13,¹⁴. Here we show an ultracompact (40 $times$ 12 micro m²) wavelength-insensitive switch based on cascaded silicon microring resonators, which may bring this vision closer to reality by serving as a critical basic element for scalable on-chip optical networks. Fast (<2 ns) error-free (bit error rate < 1 $times$ 10^-12) switching of multiple (up to 9) 40-Gbit s^-1 optical channels is demonstrated in a temperature-insensitive ( plusminus 15 °C) device.

Access

Letter

Article Links

Article Tools

Search Pubmed for