Advanced micro-opto-electro-mechanical systems for elastic optical telecommunications networks

用于弹性光通信网络的先进微光机电系统

• 批准号: 530551-2018
• 负责人: Ménard, Michaël
• 金额: $ 13.9万
• 依托单位: Université du Québec à Montréal
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Collaborative Research and Development Grants
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=697776
• 关键词: Advanced; micro; opto; electro; mechanical

The emergence of new digital services fueled by the progress in artificial intelligence and the development of the internet of things requires access and datacom networks to continuously increase their capacity. Optical technologies have demonstrated that they can enable links with several terabits of bandwidth in long-haul networks. However, these technologies are too expensive to be deployed in short reach networks. Furthermore, to amortize the investment needed to setup high capacity optical networks, service providers are looking for solutions that can support different types of traffic from consumer, business, and wireless access (i.e. 5G) applications. Therefore the next generation of optical technologies must enable flexible networks. In order to provide affordable and efficient solutions to networking equipment manufacturer, four years ago researchers from the University of Quebec at Montreal and École de Technologie Supérieure began a collaboration with the company AEPONYX to develop a novel silicon photonic microfabrication platform integrating microelectromechanical actuators and silicon nitride-based optical waveguides. This work culminated in the demonstration of a new optical space switch. However, it also highlighted challenges and opportunities to improve the platform. The proposed project will explore how the capacity of the platform can be leveraged to create novel tunable optical filters that can adjust their bandwidth and central wavelength since they are key building blocks for future elastic optical networks. Moreover, it will investigate how the packaging of integrated optical chips can be facilitated by implementing new functionalities on the platform. The benefits of this research projects are expected to go beyond the improvement of telecommunication networks since devices built with the novel platform could find applications in many other areas, including environmental sensing and medical imaging. Furthermore, the people trained during the research program will gain valuable advanced design and manufacturing skills. The proposed program will train 1 research assistant, 3 post-doctoral researchers, 4 PhDs, 2 Master's and 4 undergraduate students.

人工智能的进步和物联网的发展推动了新数字服务的出现，要求接入和数据通信网络不断提高其容量。光技术已证明它们可以在长距离中实现数太比特带宽的链路。然而，这些技术过于昂贵，无法部署在短距离网络中。此外，为了分摊建立高容量光网络所需的投资，服务提供商正在寻找能够支持来自消费者、企业和用户的不同类型流量的解决方案。无线访问（即因此，下一代光技术必须支持灵活的网络。 为了向网络设备制造商提供负担得起且高效的解决方案，四年前，蒙特利尔魁北克大学和巴黎高等理工学院的研究人员开始与 AEPONYX 公司合作，开发一种集成微机电执行器和氮化硅的新型硅光子微加工平台这项工作最终展示了一种新的光空间开关，但也凸显了改进该平台的挑战和机遇。探索如何利用该平台的能力来创建新型可调谐光滤波器，以调整其带宽和中心波长，因为它们是未来弹性光网络的关键构建模块。此外，还将研究如何封装集成光芯片。通过在平台上实施新功能来促进。 该研究项目的好处预计将超越电信网络的改善，因为使用该新颖平台构建的设备可以在许多其他领域找到应用，包括环境传感和医学成像。此外，在研究项目期间接受培训的人员将获得宝贵的成果。拟培养研究助理1名、博士后3名、博士生4名、硕士生2名、本科生4名。