FUTUR-IC<\/a>, a new research team based at MIT and funded by the National Science Foundation\u2019s Convergence Accelerator through a cooperative agreement. \u201cOur goal is to build a microchip industry value chain that is resource-efficient,\u201d says Anu Agarwal, head of\u00a0 FUTUR-IC and a principal research scientist at the Materials Research Laboratory (MRL).<\/p>\nNow, FUTUR-IC researchers including Agarwal and Kimerling have developed a new way to co-package photonic chips with their electronic counterparts that solves several problems associated with the current co-packaging process. One advantage is that the newly developed co-packaged device can be manufactured using existing equipment in traditional electronics foundries with a less-expensive passive alignment process. As a result, the MIT solution promises to be cost-effective.<\/p>\n
A paper on the device, which is patented, was featured on the cover of\u00a0Advanced Engineering Materials\u00a0earlier this year. Last fall another paper on the work was presented by the lead author, Drew Weninger, at the 57th\u00a0International Symposium on Microelectronics. Weninger, a graduate student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE), won the Best Student Paper Award at the event.<\/p>\n
In addition to Weninger, Kimerling, and Agarwal, authors of the\u00a0Advanced Engineering Materials\u00a0paper are Samuel Serna of Bridgewater State University and Luigi Ranno, a DMSE graduate student.<\/p>\n
Towars resource-efficient microchips<\/p>\n
Consider the following: In 2020 the number of cell phones, GPS units, and other devices connected to the \u201ccloud,\u201d or large data centers, exceeded 50 billion, according to Kimerling. And data-center traffic in turn is scaling by 1,000 times every 10 years.<\/p>\n
This communication consumes energy. And \u201call of it has to happen at a constant cost of energy, because the gross domestic product isn\u2019t changing at that rate,\u201d says Kimerling, who is also affiliated with the MRL. The solution is to either produce more energy or make information technology more energy efficient.<\/p>\n
Integrating photonics with the electronics that underpin today\u2019s microchips could address the latter because the transmission, or communication, of data using light is much more energy efficient. \u201cOur mantra is to use electronics for computation and photonics for communication to bring this energy crisis under control,\u201d says Agarwal.<\/p>\n
However, this solution comes with its own challenges.<\/p>\n
For example, currently it is difficult and expensive to connect electronic chips with their photonic counterparts within a single package. That\u2019s because the optical fiber, which has a core diameter of ten micrometers (ten millionths of a meter), and the photonic chip, which has cross-sectional dimensions of only two tenths by five tenths of a micrometer, must be aligned almost perfectly or the light will disperse. \u00a0As a result, today each connection must be actively tested with a laser to ensure that the light will come through.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the number of fibers that we will need for greater data communication is increasing exponentially, so this active alignment process won\u2019t cut it for scaling forward,\u201d Weninger said.<\/p>\n
More wiggle room<\/p>\n
The new device, called an evanescent coupler, gives much more wiggle room for connecting the fibers within the electronic-photonic package \u201cConventional couplers have a single coupling point, making alignment tolerances very tight. But our new coupler has a much larger interaction length increasing the alignment tolerance,\u201d says Agarwal. As a result, robots could passively assemble the resulting integrated circuits allowing more light to pass through without being lost (no active laser alignment is needed).<\/p>\n
Another key innovation: the coupler \u201callows us to transmit light vertically\u201d between the multiple layers of chips that comprise the whole, says Ranno. That in itself is an important feat because it is difficult to direct light out of a horizontal plane. \u201cIn electronics it is very simple. Electrons can easily flow out of plane,\u201d Weninger says. In contrast, \u201clight never wants to take right angles.\u201d The new coupler lets light make the jump between stacked chips.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve developed a packaging design [for integrating photonics with electronics] that is reliable, has a larger alignment tolerance, doesn\u2019t lose much light, and doesn\u2019t waste too much space. Basically, it has all the features you want for an efficient and functional interconnect,\u201d Ranno concludes.<\/p>\n
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