Integrated Circuits for Modulated Optical Communication Links

High-performance computing and communication infrastructure has reached an industrial scale, with equipment racks 100 meters long interconnected by cables carrying data at speeds exceeding 10Gb/s. This has led to growing interest in optical fiber communication for interconnect within infrastructure computing and communication installations, displacing conventional copper interconnect. Transitioning these relatively short-reach parallel links to optical will require decreased cost and power consumption in the transmitters and receivers at either end of the links. We will demonstrate circuits to modulate and demodulate light on the fiber to carry multiple bits of information in each optical pulse, thereby reducing the burden on optoelectronic components and permitting lower cost and power. This project will focus on circuits using standard CMOS manufacturing technology where the partner company, Semtech, is a world leader in the intellectual property for high-speed data communication. The research will extend the company’s market leadership in their Toronto office.

Faculty Supervisor:

Tony Chan Carusone

Student:

Partner:

Semtech Canada Corporation

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Toronto

Program: