Project: Neuro-augmented 112Gbaud CMOS plasmonic transceiver platform for Intra- and Inter-DCI applications

2020-01-01 – 2023-09-30

Abstract

NEBULA aims to provide the foundations for a common future-proof transceiver technology platform with ultra-high bandwidth capabilities offered by a CMOS compatible toolkit and tailored towards meeting performance, cost and energy metrics in both inter-DCI coherent and intra-DCI ASIC co-packaged optics. NEBULA will be investing in the established bandwidth- and energy saving credentials of plasmonic modulator solutions together with the functional digital processing portfolio of neuromorphic optical reservoir computing engines towards painting the landscape of the next-coming disruption in transceiver evolution, tailoring them in System-in-Package prototype assemblies that can intersect with the challenging framework of both inter- and intra-DCI segments. NEBULA target to demonstrate i) a fully-functional 8-channel 112Gbaud 16QAM C-band transceiver prototype, offering an aggregate capacity of 3.2Tbps and requiring just 2.65W per single 400Gbps wavelength, providing in this way an energy efficiency of only 6.625pJ/ bit with energy savings of 93% compared to current 200Gbps and 19W-consuming pluggable optics and ii) a fullyfunctional sub-Volt 8-channel 112Gbaud PAM4 O-band transmitter co-packaged with a data generating ASIC from Mellanox, offering a 1.6Tbps aggregate capacity with up to 37% energy savings compared to the estimated power requirements of respective Si-photonic-based co-packaged solutions.