Sidney Buchbinder

EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley

Technical Report No. UCB/EECS-2023-41

May 1, 2023

http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2023/EECS-2023-41.pdf

As next generation wireless and sensing systems scale to massive array sizes, so too scales the cost and complexity of data transmission and aggregation across the array. Silicon photonic links offer promising solutions to meet the high bandwidth and energy efficiency requirements of these future systems. This work addresses three challenges facing input/output scaling in photonic links. First, a new photonic system design framework called Berkeley Photonics Generator (BPG) is presented. BPG is an open-sourced, modular, and easy-to-use framework for end-to-end photonic system design. BPG aims to create an agile, robust, and easily adoptable workflow with a rich set of reusable libraries to boost the photonic design ecosystem. The design philosophy, plugin-based architecture, and technology-agnostic design workflow are described, and several design results enabled by BPG are discussed. Next, a new framework for modeling crosstalk and insertion loss penalty in digital optical links is presented. This framework provides intuitive understanding for the receive-filter imposed limitations of channel densification in optical links. The major sources of signal impairment are identified as functions of technology parameters and system design choices, such as channel spacing. The framework is used to derive optimal filter design parameters, and the utility of higher order filters is considered. Finally, analog modulation in optical links is proposed as an alternative signaling modality for high-bandwidth links. The fundamental gain and noise performance are derived for a generic analog optical link, and the performance of a microring in GlobalFoundries 45CLO platform is validated for use as a WDM compatible analog optical modulator. A proof-of-concept microring-resonator-based analog WDM link system is designed for data remoting in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), demonstrating an SFDR3 of 63 dBHz2/3.

Advisors: Vladimir Stojanovic

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BibTeX citation:

@phdthesis{Buchbinder:EECS-2023-41,
    Author= {Buchbinder, Sidney},
    Title= {Analog Optical Links: Modeling and Implementation},
    School= {EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley},
    Year= {2023},
    Month= {May},
    Url= {http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2023/EECS-2023-41.html},
    Number= {UCB/EECS-2023-41},
    Abstract= {As next generation wireless and sensing systems scale to massive array sizes, so too scales the cost and complexity of data transmission and aggregation across the array. Silicon photonic links offer promising solutions to meet the high bandwidth and energy efficiency requirements of these future systems. This work addresses three challenges facing input/output scaling in photonic links. First, a new photonic system design framework called Berkeley Photonics Generator (BPG) is presented. BPG is an open-sourced, modular, and easy-to-use framework for end-to-end photonic system design. BPG aims to create an agile, robust, and easily adoptable workflow with a rich set of reusable libraries to boost the photonic design ecosystem. The design philosophy, plugin-based architecture, and technology-agnostic design workflow are described, and several design results enabled by BPG are discussed. Next, a new framework for modeling crosstalk and insertion loss penalty in digital optical links is presented. This framework provides intuitive understanding for the receive-filter imposed limitations of channel densification in optical links. The major sources of signal impairment are identified as functions of technology parameters and system design choices, such as channel spacing. The framework is used to derive optimal filter design parameters, and the utility of higher order filters is considered. Finally, analog modulation in optical links is proposed as an alternative signaling modality for high-bandwidth links. The fundamental gain and noise performance are derived for a generic analog optical link, and the performance of a microring in GlobalFoundries 45CLO platform is validated for use as a WDM compatible analog optical modulator. A proof-of-concept microring-resonator-based analog WDM link system is designed for data remoting in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), demonstrating an SFDR3 of 63 dBHz2/3.},
}

EndNote citation:

%0 Thesis
%A Buchbinder, Sidney 
%T Analog Optical Links: Modeling and Implementation
%I EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley
%D 2023
%8 May 1
%@ UCB/EECS-2023-41
%U http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2023/EECS-2023-41.html
%F Buchbinder:EECS-2023-41