Integrated Photonics and Electronics for Optical Transceivers Supporting AI/ML Applications
The recent proliferation of artificial intelligence and machine learning applications relying on large language models is fueling unprecedented demand for compute capacity. Associated with this is a need to scale capacities of short-reach optical transceivers towards multiplex Terabit/s, while maintaining integration density (frontpanel or beachfront density) and energy efficiency (pJ/bit). One option to scale transceiver capacity is to increase the bandwidth per lane from today's 200 G to 400 G or even higher: coherent transceiver technology is then expected to play an ever more important role. Photonics and electronics with higher bandwidths beyond 100 GHz will play a crucial role. Integration of thin-film LiNbO3 modulator onto a Silicon Photonics platform is shown to be a viable option to meet the needs for new generations of optical transceivers. Front-end electronics such as linear modulator drivers and transimpedance amplifiers can rely on traveling-wave design approaches to allow continued bandwidth scaling despite (relative) slowing transistor speeds. Novel wireline data converter architectures can be used to overcome limitations of existing implementations. Maintaining signal integrity from photonics and electronics can be facilitated using both 2.5D and 3D integration approaches. While the introduction of novel materials and architectures will require time to further mature, optical transceivers operating at baudrates up to and beyond 200 Gbaud are now just beyond the horizon.
Authors
- Xiaobo Yin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8344-9166)
- Dominique Maes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9179-3186)
- Jeroen Missinne (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3470-620X)
- Guy Torfs (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1817-5370)
- Geert Van Steenberge (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8574-1235)
- Ewout Martens (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5485-1837)
- J. Zhang
- Joris Van Driessche
- Bart Moeneclaey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9444-6235)
- Sulakshna Kumari (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3766-513X)
- Joris Lambrecht (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8291-0339)
- Shengpu Niu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0212-6876)
- Gertjan Coudyzer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3915-394X)
- Jan Craninckx (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3980-0203)
- Cédric Bruynsteen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6862-0551)
- Tom Vanackere (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4692-9467)
- Laurens Bogaert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3971-5938)
- Nishant Singh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0609-1145)
- X. Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-3372-1533)
- Jakob Declercq (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1972-6218)
- Tinus Pannier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2225-0505)
- Lucas Van Severen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4766-4360)
- Bart Kuyken (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8745-7833)
- Johan Bauwelinck (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5254-2408)
- P. Absil (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-5644-1628)
- Gijs van Elzakker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-4788-8096)
- Ewoud Vissers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5765-0552)
- Joris Van Campenhout (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0778-2669)
- Peter Ossieur (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8737-9142)
- Ruud Oldenbeuving
- G. Roelkens
- Ye Gu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4903-5170)
- J. De Busscher
Institutions
- Imec the Netherlands (NL)
- Ghent University (BE)
- iMinds (BE)
- IMEC (BE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics
- Published
- 2025-02-06
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1109/jstqe.2025.3539379
- Citations
- 13
- Primary Topic
- Photonic and Optical Devices
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 9.50