Direct‐access mode‐division multiplexing switch for scalable on‐chip multi‐mode networks

Abstract

Abstract By leveraging mode‐division multiplexing (MDM), capacity of on‐chip photonic interconnects can be scaled up to an unprecedented level. The demand for dynamic control of mode carriers has led to the development of mode‐division multiplexing switches (MDMS), yet the conventional MDMS is incapable of directly accessing an individual lower‐order mode that propagates in a multi‐mode bus waveguide, which hinders its scalability and flexibility. In this paper, we propose and demonstrate the first direct‐access MDMS as a novel platform for scalable on‐chip multi‐mode networks. At first, the highly efficient mode exchangers are developed for TE 0 –TE 2 and TE 1 –TE 2 mode swap, which are then employed to realize the direct‐access mode add‐drop multiplexers with high performances. The direct‐access MDMS is then achieved based on the proposed mode add‐drop multiplexers, which can be used for dynamically adding and dropping any selected mode carrier in a three‐channel MDM. Moreover, the novel direct‐access scheme is also adopted to simultaneously harness wavelength and mode carriers, leading to a wavelength/mode‐hybrid multiplexing system with an enhanced link capacity of twelve channels. To further verify the utility of the MDMS, a multi‐mode hubbed‐ring network is constructed, where one hub and three nodes are organized within a ring‐like multi‐mode bus waveguide. The reconfigurable network traffic of 6 × 10 Gbps data streams are obtained by using three eigen modes as signal carriers. The measurement results show low bit‐error rates (<10 −9 ) with low power penalties (<3.1 dB).

Topics & Concepts