Design Consideration, Numerical and Experimental Analyses of Mode-Division-Multiplexed (MDM) Silicon Photonics...

Area of Science:

• Optical Engineering
• Integrated Photonics
• Telecommunications

Background:

• Traditional electrical interconnects face bandwidth and power limitations.
• Silicon photonics (SiPh) offers a solution for increased interconnect capacity and reduced power consumption.
• Mode-division multiplexing (MDM) transmits multiple signals in a single waveguide, but sharp bends cause inter-mode crosstalk.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the length dependency of transmission performance in multimode bus waveguides with sharp Euler bends.
• To optimize waveguide design parameters (length, width, bend radius) for high-performance MDM systems.
• To demonstrate proof-of-concept non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and orthogonal-frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) transmissions using optimized SiPh structures.

Main Methods:

• Utilized simulation and experimental approaches to analyze transmission performance.
• Investigated the impact of waveguide length between two sharp Euler bends.
• Optimized waveguide length, width, and bend radius for improved signal integrity.

Main Results:

• Transmission performance between Euler bends is significantly dependent on the intervening waveguide length, especially for sharp bends.
• Achieved high transmission performance through optimized design of waveguide length, width, and bend radius.
• Successfully demonstrated NOMA-OFDM experimental transmissions supporting two MDM modes and two NOMA users.

Conclusions:

• Proper design of waveguide length is crucial for high-performance MDM in SiPh circuits with sharp bends.
• Optimized MDM bus waveguides enable efficient integration of advanced multiplexing techniques like NOMA and OFDM.
• This research contributes to advancing high-capacity optical interconnects for future data-intensive applications.