PIN SHARING FOR PHOTONIC PROCESSORS
Aspects relate to a photonic processing system, an integrated circuit, and a method of operating an integrated circuit to control components to modulate optical signals. A photonic processing system, comprising: a photonic integrated circuit comprising: a first electrically-controllable photonic component electrically coupling an input pin to a first output pin; and a second electrically-controllable photonic component electrically coupling the input pin to a second output pin.
1 . A photonic processing system, comprising:
a driver electrically coupled to an input trace;
a first electrically-controllable photonic component electrically coupling the input trace to a first switch; and
a second electrically-controllable photonic component electrically coupling the input trace to a second switch.
2 . The photonic processing system of claim 1 , wherein the driver comprises a digital-to-analog converter (DAC).
3 . The photonic processing system of claim 1 , wherein the first switch and the second switch are electrically coupled to a common reference voltage terminal.
4 . The photonic processing system of claim 3 , wherein the common reference voltage terminal is further electrically coupled to the driver.
5 . The photonic processing system of claim 1 , wherein the input trace is a first input trace and wherein the photonic processing system further comprises a plurality of input traces and a plurality of switches, wherein the plurality of switches comprises the first switch and the second switch and the plurality of input traces comprises the first input trace.
6 . The photonic processing system of claim 5 , wherein the driver is a first driver and wherein the photonic processing system further comprises:
a second driver electrically coupled to a second input trace;
a third electrically-controllable photonic component electrically coupling the second input trace to the first switch; and
a fourth electrically-controllable photonic component electrically coupling the second input trace to the second switch.
7 . The photonic processing system of claim 5 , wherein:
the plurality of input traces comprises between 8 and 1024 input traces;
the plurality of switches comprises between 8 and 1024 switches; and
the photonic processing system comprises between 64 and 140,000 electrically-controllable photonic components.
8 . The photonic processing system of claim 1 , wherein the first electrically-controllable photonic component comprises an optical modulator.
9 . The photonic processing system of claim 8 , wherein the optical modulator comprises a Mach-Zehnder interferometer.
10 . The photonic processing system of claim 8 , wherein the optical modulator comprises a ring modulator.
11 . A photonic processing system, comprising:
a driver electrically coupled to a first input trace;
a first switch; and
a first electrically-controllable photonic component electrically coupling the first input trace to the first switch.
12 . The photonic processing system of claim 11 , further comprising a second switch and a second electrically-controllable photonic component electrically coupling the first input trace to the second switch.
13 . The photonic processing system of claim 12 , wherein the driver is a first driver and wherein the photonic processing system further comprises:
a second driver electrically coupled to a second input trace;
a third electrically-controllable photonic component electrically coupling the second input trace to the first switch;
a fourth electrically-controllable photonic component electrically coupling the second input trace to the second switch.
14 . The photonic processing system of claim 11 , wherein:
the photonic processing system comprises a silicon photonics integrated circuit;
the driver comprises a digital-to-analog converter (DAC); and
the first electrically-controllable photonic component comprises an optical modulator.
15 . The photonic processing system of claim 11 , wherein the photonic processing system comprises between 8 and 1024 drivers, and between 8 and 1024 switches.
16 . The photonic processing system of claim 11 , wherein the photonic processing system comprises between 64 and 140,000 electrically-controllable photonic components.
17 . A photonic processing system, comprising:
a plurality of drivers comprising a first driver electrically coupled to a first input trace, and a second driver electrically coupled to a second input trace;
a plurality of switches comprising a first switch, and a second switch; and
a plurality of electrically-controllable photonic components, comprising:
a first electrically-controllable photonic component electrically coupling the first input trace to the first switch;
a second electrically-controllable photonic component electrically coupling the first input trace to the second switch;
a third electrically-controllable photonic component electrically coupling the second input trace to the first switch; and
a fourth electrically-controllable photonic component electrically coupling the second input trace to the second switch.
18 . The photonic processing system of claim 17 , wherein the first driver comprises a first digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and the second driver comprises a second DAC.
19 . The photonic processing system of claim 17 , wherein the first switch and the second switch are electrically coupled to a common reference voltage terminal.
20 . The photonic processing system of claim 17 , wherein the plurality of drivers, further comprise between 8 and 1024 drivers, and where the plurality of switches, further comprise between 8 and 1024 switches.