Abstract
Integrated optics today is based upon chips of Si and InP. The future of this chip industry is probably contained in the thrust towards optoelectronic integrated circuits (OEICs) and photonic integrated circuits (PICs) manufactured in a high-volume foundry. We believe that reconfigurable OEICs and PICs, known as ROEICs and RPICs, constitute the ultimate embodiment of integrated photonics. This paper shows that any ROEIC-on-a-chip can be decomposed into photonic modules, some of them fixed and some of them changeable in function. Reconfiguration is provided by electrical control signals to the electro-optical building blocks. We illustrate these modules in detail and discuss 3D ROEIC chips for the highest-performance signal processing. We present examples of our module theory for RPIC optical lattice filters already constructed, and we propose new ROEICs for directed optical logic, large-scale matrix switching, and 2D beamsteering of a phased-array microwave antenna. In general, large-scale-integrated ROEICs will enable significant applications in computing, quantum computing, communications, learning, imaging, telepresence, sensing, RF/microwave photonics, information storage, cryptography, and data mining.
Highlights
This paper focuses on reconfigurable chips and boards that can interface with free-space light beams and optical fibers
This paper considers active photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and opto-electronic integrated circuits (OEICs), in particular reconfigurable PICs or RPICs and reconfigurable optoelectronic integrated circuits (OEICs) or ROEICs
The 3D RPIC region can consist of a 3D photonic crystal such as the stacked rod-and-hole membranes shown by the MIT team [2] on the above multiuniversity research initiative (MURI), or a vertical ensemble of 2D electrooptical waveguiding layers
Summary
This paper focuses on reconfigurable chips and boards that can interface with free-space light beams and optical fibers. One goal of this paper is to present a buildingblock theory of reconfigurables in which a system is formed by interconnecting fixed and changeable modules, each of which has a distinct function. Those functions are identified, and several examples of theory are given. Our theory provides a framework for innovative R&D in LSI but does not answer basic questions about the function and architecture of new LSI chips. This paper considers active photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and opto-electronic integrated circuits (OEICs), in particular reconfigurable PICs or RPICs and reconfigurable OEICs or ROEICs. The term active refers to EO devices such as lasers, amplifiers, photodetectors, modulators, and switches
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