WDM-based Silicon Photonic Multi-socket Interconnect Architecture with Automated Wavelength and Thermal Drift Compensation

A silicon photonic circuit comprising all the building blocks necessary to demonstrate optical communication between two sockets interconnected through an Arrayed Waveguide Grating Router is reported. The paper focuses on the robustness of the interconnection scheme to the unavoidable wavelength and thermal fluctuations observed in real datacenter environments. To improve the reliability of the system, a feedback control mechanism, based on ContactLess Integrated Photonic Probes and heater actuators, is added to the interconnection to monitor in parallel the working point of each sensitive device and keep it locked in real-time. Experimental results demonstrate successful operations in a 30 Gbit/s data routing scenario at 5x10^11 bit error rate, irrespective of sudden wavelength shifts of up to 200 pm or of iterated thermal variations in a 10 °C temperature range, with a recovery time of around 30 ms. These results prove that AWGR-based interconnections equipped with real-time drift compensation systems can be a viable option in multi-socket layouts even in highly demanding environments.