Design of reconfigurable on-chip wireless interconnections through Optical Phased Arrays

Area of Science:

• Photonics
• Integrated Optics
• Computer Engineering

Background:

• Wired communication in manycore systems faces bandwidth and power limitations.
• Reconfigurable interconnections are crucial for flexible network topologies.
• Optical wireless communication offers a potential solution to these challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and simulate a novel on-chip optical wireless interconnection device.
• To enable high-bandwidth, power-efficient, and reconfigurable connections between chiplets.
• To explore the use of Optical Phased Arrays (OPAs) for optical switching.

Main Methods:

• Design of transmitting and receiving Optical Phased Arrays (OPAs).
• Three-dimensional Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) simulations for performance analysis.
• Utilizing in-plane radiation from taper antennas for switching matrices.
• Analysis of multipath propagation effects in the on-chip medium.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated the feasibility of OPA-based optical wireless interconnections.
• Simulated 1xN and NxN switching matrices using taper antennas.
• Evaluated the impact of multipath propagation on communication performance.
• Provided OPA design criteria for on-chip optical networks.

Conclusions:

• Optical wireless switching with OPAs presents a novel approach to overcome communication bottlenecks in manycore systems.
• The proposed device offers a flexible and efficient solution for chip-to-chip interconnections.
• FDTD simulations validate the design and highlight key performance considerations.