GASP: Gallium Arsenide (III-V) photonic integrated circuits built like Silicon Photonics

GASP：砷化镓 (III-V) 光子集成电路，类似于硅光子学

基本信息

批准号：
EP/V052179/1
负责人：
Krishna Coimbatore Balram
金额：
$ 31.01万
依托单位：
University of Bristol
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2021
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2021 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FV052179%2F1
关键词：
GASP Gallium Arsenide III photonic

项目摘要

There are very few exponential trends in technology that stay exponential for long. Moore's law is probably the best example, where an exponential (the doubling of the number of transistors in modern microprocessors every 18-24 months) has persisted for almost four decades, with great benefit to modern society. On the other hand, in recent years, there has been another slightly more worrying exponential. This is the total amount of data that we as a society have been consuming. It has been growing exponentially for the past decade and shows no signs of slowing down. It is probably best illustrated by modern data centers that have grown in size scale and number all around the globe to the point where by 2030, they are expected to consume ~ 20% of the world's total electricity supply and even today, they emit more CO2 than the global airline industry. If you look at a data center more carefully, most of the energy is dissipated not in computing, but in sending bits around at very high data rates over variable distances, and this is predominantly done in the optical domain.If we can build a more efficient photonic integrated circuit for handling this optical communication, we can address this energy problem in principle. The work done as part of this project is aimed towards developing the underlying platform and a scalable manufacturing process for building these efficient photonic devices. Our approach is to apply the best manufacturing processes (derived from silicon photonics and silicon MEMS foundries) to the best available optical materials (compound semiconductors). We believe this is a natural route towards building the most energy efficient integrated photonic devices. In addition to data center transceivers, the platform developed here will also be applicable to other areas ranging from photonic devices for satellite communication to cryogenic photonics platforms for quantum information.

技术领域很少有指数趋势能够长期保持指数增长。摩尔定律可能是最好的例子，其中指数（现代微处理器中的晶体管数量每 18-24 个月增加一倍）已经持续了近四十年，给现代社会带来了巨大的好处。另一方面，近年来出现了另一个稍微令人担忧的指数。这是我们整个社会消耗的数据总量。在过去的十年里，它一直呈指数级增长，并且没有任何放缓的迹象。现代数据中心的规模和数量在全球范围内不断增长，预计到 2030 年，它们将消耗全球总电力供应的约 20%，甚至在今天，它们排放的二氧化碳也更多超过全球航空业。如果您更仔细地观察数据中心，您会发现大部分能量不是在计算中消耗的，而是在可变距离上以非常高的数据速率发送比特时消耗的，而这主要是在光域中完成的。高效的光子集成电路来处理这种光通信，原则上我们可以解决这个能源问题。作为该项目的一部分所做的工作旨在开发底层平台和可扩展的制造工艺，以构建这些高效的光子器件。我们的方法是将最好的制造工艺（源自硅光子学和硅 MEMS 代工厂）应用于最好的可用光学材料（化合物半导体）。我们相信这是构建最节能的集成光子器件的自然途径。除了数据中心收发器之外，这里开发的平台还将适用于其他领域，从用于卫星通信的光子器件到用于量子信息的低温光子平台。