Fujitsu Laboratories has developed a compact silicon photonics light source for use in optical transceivers which are required for optical interconnects capable of carrying large volumes of data at high speeds between CPU’s.
The company said that the new technology allows the compact, low-power optical transceivers to be mounted directly in CPU packaging. It also makes way for super-high-speed computers through its application to optical interconnects between CPUs for exaflops-class supercomputers and high-end servers, said Fujitsu.
The company said that the light source is composed of a silicon mirror and a semiconductor optical amplifier. The silicon mirror, in turn, comprises a ring resonator and Bragg reflector controlling the lasing wavelength. As the optical transceiver is located near the CPU, the lasing wavelength and the operating wavelength of the ring-resonator-based optical modulator do not coincide with each other due to heat from the CPU, leading to information not to be encoded in the light.Fujitsu said, a thermal control mechanism is needed to ensure that they match exactly, which is an obstacle to making the transceiver simple, compact and energy efficient.
The compact silicon photonics light source obviates the need for a thermal control mechanism, said the company. Fujitsu Laboratories plans to continue the development of optical transceivers for large-capacity interconnects by integrating this light source technology.
