As the speed of data exchanges increases at all communication levels, from network down to chip level, copper-based connections are reaching their limits of performance in terms of distances and error rates. All of these limits can be overcome by the use of optical communications, which, instead of basing interconnections on copper wires, send modulated light pulses generated by a laser across thin and light optical fibers or waveguides, and detect these pulses by a photodetector, thus allowing link datarates up to 1Terabit/s.

However, traditional optical transceivers suffer for a high cost, mainly due to the reduced integration level and to the uncommon materials and technologies they rely upon. In the recent past a new process technology, called silicon photonics, has been identified as an attractive alternative to traditional optical transceivers, since it enables monolithic optoelectronic device integration together with electronic circuits in a low-cost CMOS process and thus opens the road for pervasive high speed communications at low cost and low power.

This project is addressing all these issues by proposing a plan which aims to study, research, implement and finally demonstrate new innovative multi standard solutions capable to transmit and receive reliable data at very high speed, beyond 25Gb/sec. The project addresses the following areas of studies:

• Know-how acquisition about the main optical components of a silicon photonics link
• Inspection into Optical-electronic (O-E) and Electro-Optical (E-O) interfaces
• System level analysis
• Design of electronic circuits to interface optical components (low noise Trans-Impedance Amplifiers, high gain Limiting Amplifiers, wide band buffers, high efficiency modulator drivers)
• Measurement and characterization of prototypes

The potential products based on Silicon Photonics cover all the communication markets. The target applications in the short term are high-speed intensive computing (High Performance Computers), datacom (Active Optical Cables, OptoPHYs, optical USB), telecom (Fiber To The Home, Passive Optical Networks), high-end storage applications, imaging and telepresence, with the perspective of extending to consumer applications in the mid-long term.

This project is lead with a direct link to ST Strategic Planning Organization in the Computer & Communication Infrastructure Product Group.

This activity is pursued by the Advanced Programs team.
For further details you can contact Prof. F.Svelto or ST team leader E.Temporiti.