SILICON PHOTONICS BASED OPTICAL NETWORK

• US 20190068293A1
• Filed: 08/23/2018
• Published: 02/28/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC (Seagate Technology Holdings Plc)
• Original Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC (Seagate Technology Holdings Plc)
• Inventors: Gomez, Kevin A.
• Granted Patent: US 10,644,808 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/67 Optical arrangements in the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/70 Photonic quantum communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 14/0267 Optical signaling or routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0003 Details
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0066 Provisions for optical burst or packet networks

Abstract

Various implementations of network devices disclosed herein provide a method routing a data packet in an optical domain, the data packet including a first component or header and second component or routing information, stripping the first component or header from the data packet using a silicon photonic component, processing the first component or header in an electrical domain, and communicating the data packet without the first component or header to an optical delay line.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

routing a data packet in an optical domain, the data packet comprising a first data component and a second data component;

stripping the first data component from the data packet using a silicon photonic component;

processing the first data component in an electrical domain; and

communicating the data packet without the first data component to an optical delay line.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising setting one or more router switches using a data packet output from processing the first data component in the electrical domain.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising communicating the data packet output from the optical delay line to the one or more router switches.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the data packet does not leave the optical domain.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the silicon photonic component is a micro-ring resonator (MRR), and further comprises a combination of a first silicon photonics component and a second silicon photonics component configured to alter the path of the data packet.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the silicon photonic component is a Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) SiPh component.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the optical delay line adds a delay of approximately 5 ns and is approximately 25 meters in length.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data component comprises a header and the second data component comprises routing information.

9. An apparatus comprising:

an incoming waveguide configured to communicate optical signals over a plurality of wavelengths; and

a combination of a first silicon photonics (SiPh) component and a second SiPh component configured to alter the path of optical signals traveling on the incoming waveguide towards an outgoing waveguide, the first SiPh component configured to resonate at a resonant wavelength to direct a first component of an incoming optical signal towards the outgoing waveguide.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the resonant wavelength of the second SiPh component is keyed down using charge carrier modulation of the second SiPh component as the resonant wavelength of the second SiPh component transitions from a first value to a second value, with the first value and the second value being opposite the resonant wavelength.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the resonant wavelength of the second SiPh component transitions from a first value to a second value in response to change in a heater power applied to the second SiPh component.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the resonant wavelength of the second SiPh component is keyed down using charge carrier modulation of the second SiPh component by approximately 0.05 nm.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein heater components are used to change the resonant frequencies of the first and second silicon photonics components.

14. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the SiPh component is a ring resonator and the incoming waveguide, outgoing waveguide, first SiPh component and second SiPh components are connected to storage devices via a network.

15. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the SiPh component is a micro ring resonator.

16. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the SiPh component is a Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) SiPh component.

17. A communication network comprising:

a plurality of waveguides, each of the waveguides configured to communicate optical signals over a plurality of wavelengths;

a combination of at least two silicon photonics (SiPh) components configured to alter the path of optical signals traveling on an incoming waveguide towards an outgoing waveguide, a first SiPh component configured to resonate at a first wavelength (λ

s_1a) to direct a first component of an incoming optical signal towards the outgoing waveguide and a second SiPh component configured to resonate at a second wavelength (λ

s_1b) to direct a second component of the incoming optical signal towards the outgoing waveguide.

18. The communication network of claim 17, wherein the SiPh component is one of:

a micro-ring resonator, a magnetic ring resonator, and a Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) SiPh component.

19. The communication network of claim 17, wherein the first component comprises a header and the second component comprises routing information.

20. The communication network of claim 17, further comprising a third SiPh component configured to resonate at a third wavelength (λ

s_1c) to direct a third component of the incoming signal toward the outgoing waveguide.