Optical interconnects have become the established solution in carrier grade data centers, high performance computing, and high speed packet and circuit switching applications. They are also emerging as the favored solution for board-board communications within equipment racks as pervasive demand for bandwidth increases. The next evolution in optical interconnects will be on-board, inter-module communications as bandwidth demands continue to increase and the challenges of cost, space and bandwidth density, power efficiency, and thermal control will need to be optimized in both component and system integration. As yet, no dominant designs for embedded or pluggable, on-board optical IO have emerged despite advances in optical cables for consumer electronics, peripheral interconnects and embedded optics for high performance computing systems.

The purpose of this presentation is to assess the viability and maturity of integrated photonics elements to implement on-board embedded optical interconnects and to identify gaps and opportunities to be addressed by the R&D community to achieve on-board optical solutions. The talk will highlight the pros and cons of the state of the art technology with respect to expected targets and way to overcome present limitations.


Seminar, November 27, 2014, 12:00. Seminar Room

Hosted by Prof. Frank Koppens