photonics paper

A FUTURE OF COMPUTING? PHOTONICS AUTHORS BY ANITA.DV KARTHKA.T ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING –THIRD YEAR JANSONS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY COIMBATORE=641659

I. ABSTRACT:

The future of computing may lie not in electrons, but in photons -- in microprocessors that use light instead of electrical signals. But these photonic devices are typically built using customized methods that make them difficult and expensive to manufacture. Now, engineers have demonstrated that low power photonic devices can be fabricated using standard chip-making processes. The research make this a major milestone in photonic technology.

II. INTRODUCTION:

The future of computing may lie not in electrons, but in photons -- that is, in microprocessors that use light instead of electrical signals. But these so-called photonic devices are typically built using customized methods that make them difficult and expensive to manufacture.Now, engineers have demonstrated that low power photonic devices can be fabricated using standard chip-making processes. They have achieved what the researchers dub a major milestone in photonic technology. The work will be presented at this year's Optical Fiber Communication (OFC) Conference and Exposition, being held March 9-13 in San Francisco.

Fig:photonics development

The two new devices -- a modulator and a tunable filter -- are as energy-efficient as some of the best devices around, the researchers say, and were built using a standard IBM advanced Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) process -- the same chip-making process used to build many commercially available chips, some of which are found in Sony's Playstation 3 and also in Watson, the supercomputer that won Jeopardy! in 2011."As far as we know, we're the first ones to get silicon photonics natively integrated into an advanced CMOS process and to achieve energy efficiencies that are very competitive with electronics," said Mark Wade of the University of Colorado, Boulder, who will present his team's work at OFC. Wade's co-authors include researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley.

III. QUENCHING A THIRST FOR POWER

Moore's Law says that the number of transistors that can fit on a chip doubles every two years, resulting in the exponential rise in computing power we have seen over the last few decades. But even as transistors continue to shrink, Moore's Law may be reaching its limits, due to the fact that the devices are requiring more power to run, which leads to overheating.Such thirst for power is especially problematic for the communication link between a computer's central processing unit and its memory.

A FUTURE OF COMPUTING? PHOTONICS AUTHORS BY ANITA.DV KARTHKA.T ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING –THIRD YEAR JANSONS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY COIMBATORE=641659"It's gotten to the point where it takes too much energy and that limits your computational power," Wade said.A solution to this problem may lie in photonics, which researchers anticipate will be at least 10 times more energy efficient than electronics. Chip-to-chip communication links using these photonic devices could have at least 10 times higher bandwidth density, meaning they can transmit much more information using a smaller amount of space. That's because different optical signals can share the same optical wire, whereas sending multiple electrical signals either requires multiple electronic wires or schemes that require more chip space and energy.But so far, Wade explains, photonic devices used in chip-to-chip communication have been primarily custom-built using specialized methods, limiting their commercial applicability. And devices that have been created with more standardized techniques rely on older technology, which limits their ability to compete with cutting-edge electronics.

IV. ON THE ROAD TO COMMERCIALIZATION

The ability to produce high-performing photonic devices using the CMOS process means chip designers will not have to be specialists to design photonic devices, Wade explained, which will hopefully accelerate the commercialization of photonic technology."IBM's CMOS process has already been commercially proven to make high-quality microelectronics products," Wade said. The work was part of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Photonically Optimized Embedded Microprocessors (POEM) project.

Fig: Development of optical electronics The two devices built by the researchers are key components for the communication link between a computer's central processing unit and its memory. A modulator converts electrical signals into optical signals. A tunable filter can pick out light signals of particular frequencies, allowing it to select a signal from multiple frequencies, each of which carries data. Used in conjunction with a photodetector, the filter converts optical signals to electrical signals.But according to Wade, the significance of this advancement goes beyond this particular application."This is a really nice first step for silicon photonics to take over some areas of technology where electronics has really dominated and to start building complex electronic/photonic systems that require dense integration," Wade said.

A FUTURE OF COMPUTING? PHOTONICS AUTHORS BY ANITA.DV KARTHKA.T ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING –THIRD YEAR JANSONS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY COIMBATORE=641659

V. MILLIMETER WAVE PHOTONICS: VIDEO MADE THE RADIO STAR:

The idea of transmitting radio frequencies via fiber channels dates back over two decades. Commercial interest in this field has emerged during the past five years as a low-cost solution for last-mile and last-meter delivery. Meanwhile DARPA's recently unveiled Fixed Wireless at a Distance program should provide a welcome funding opportunity for MMW proponents.

With commercial solutions now available for single- and multi-mode fibers, my academic curiosity is turning towards plastic optical fiber (POF). Alongside powerline and MIMO wireless techniques, demand for POF is growing as a conduit for multi-room TV and high-speed internet distribution.

Although I have read some promising papers recently on radio-over-POF it seems there remains much scope for innovation. Specifically, established wireless techniques such as digital pre-distortion, MIMO error correction and steerable antennae should be reconfigured for RF-over-POF deployment.

(NB: A steerable antenna is a specific objective of the DARPA program.)

The photonics industry is not short of innovative methods for producing microwave signals. Mach-Zehnder modulation, dual-wavelength sources, four-wave-mixing and optically injection-locked lasers are among the most common.

Hopefully OFC/NFOEC 2012 will provide insight into forthcoming technical improvements that will enable MMW photonics to penetrate both telecoms and non-telecoms markets. Outside telecoms I foresee demand accelerating in neighboring applications such as security (e.g. concealed weapons detection), non-destructive testing, astronomy and biomedical applications.

VI. ENVIRONMENTAL PHOTONICS: IS THE GLASS ALWAYS GREENER?

Fig: photonics in environment technologieFirst, environmental considerations have already

A FUTURE OF COMPUTING? PHOTONICS AUTHORS BY ANITA.DV KARTHKA.T ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING –THIRD YEAR JANSONS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY COIMBATORE=641659overcome the hyperbole barrier, at least here in Europe. Incumbent telcos have implemented carbon reduction programmes and many are amongst the largest (proportional) users of renewable energy in the region. Green awareness is particularly acute within the cloud computing domain where many (though sadly not all) software-as-a-service providers have secured low-carbon energy sources and righteously advertise such credentials. In theory, low-energy proposals should be well received by network operators though I suspect commercial considerations such as supplier base security remain the overriding factor.

Second, whilst supporting judicious use of government finances to bridge funding gaps that have starved photonic innovators over the past few years, I believe we should avoid over-hyping the investment potential. High-temperature semiconductor optical amplifiers and low-energy silicon CMOS photonics justifiably, in my opinion, have received federal funding. Yet with investor appetite for optical networking starting to thaw, we must be alert to the dangers of endorsing unrealistic growth expectations. Between 2003 and 2010 over $3 billion of shareholder value was destroyed in the pursuit of portable fuel cells. The same must not happen with Green Photonics.

Third, I believe it is important to quantify the end-to-end environmental merits of optical networking proposals. Failure to do so may instil the photonic equivalent of off-balance sheet accounting with equally misleading consequences. For example, would a 40-Gb/s MLSE chipset consume more or less per-bit energy than 4×10-Gb/s transceivers with in-line dispersion compensators? Automotive engineers

already understand these considerations and have codified environmental impact formulae such as well-to-wheel efficiency. Similar terminologies exist in the photonics domain, for example wall plug efficiency, but these should be expanded to encompass the entire photonic journey.

Fourth, I believe circuit switching will have an important role to play in reducing network energy consumption. This is especially true in the transport layer where entire routes could be hibernated according to predicted loads fluctuations. I mention this example because it illustrates the growing need for joined-up thinking between component designers and network planners.

VII. REFERENCES:

1. Öschwitzer J., Müller R.H. Drug Nanocrystals – The Universal Formulation Approach for Poorly Soluble Drugs // Nanoparticulate Drug Delivery Systems. Drugs And The Pharmaceutical Sciences, v. 166 Ed. by D. Thassu, M. Deleers, Y. Pathak. — Informa Healthcare, 2007. P. 71-88.

2. Nanophotonics // Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia.

3. ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 19 February 2014. Www.sciencedaily.com

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