PHOTONIC COMMUNICATION PLATFORM, PACKAGES AND RELATED FABRICATION
Photonic interposers that enable low-power, high-bandwidth inter-chip (e.g., board-level and/or rack-level) as well as intra-chip communication are described. Described herein are techniques, architectures and processes that improve upon the performance of conventional computers. Some embodiments provide photonic interposers that use photonic tiles, where each tile includes programmable photonic circuits that can be programmed based on the needs of a particular computer architecture. Some tiles are instantiations of a common template tile that are stitched together in a 1D or a 2D arrangement. Some embodiments described herein provide a programmable physical network designed to connect pairs of tiles together with photonic links.
1 . A method for fabricating a photonic package, comprising:
obtaining a photonic interposer having a grating coupler formed on a first surface of the photonic interposer;
attaching an electronic chip to the first surface of the photonic interposer;
encapsulating the electronic chip with an encapsulation material;
placing a protective material on the first surface of the photonic interposer to cover the grating coupler;
subsequent to placing the protective material, forming electronic connections on a second surface of the photonic interposer opposite the first surface; and
subsequent to forming the electronic connections, removing the protective material from the first surface of the photonic interposer to expose the grating coupler to air.
2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising cleaning the first surface of the photonic interposer subsequent to removing the protective material from the first surface of the photonic interposer.
3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising attaching a fiber to the first surface of the photonic interposer subsequent to removing the protective material so that the fiber, when attached, is optically coupled to the grating coupler.
4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the fiber is at a non-zero angle with respect to the first surface of the photonic interposer when the fiber is optically coupled to the grating coupler.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein attaching the electronic chip to the first surface of the photonic interposer is performed subsequent to placing the protective material on the first surface of the photonic interposer.
6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the protective material comprises a photo-imagable dielectric.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein placing the protective material on the first surface of the photonic interposer is performed subsequent to attaching the electronic chip to the first surface of the photonic interposer.
8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein placing the protective material on the first surface of the photonic interposer is performed subsequent to encapsulating the electronic chip with the encapsulation material.
9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the protective material comprises a glass lid with a releasable adhesive.
10 . A method for fabricating a photonic package, comprising:
obtaining a photonic interposer having a grating coupler formed on a first surface of the photonic interposer;
attaching an electronic chip to the first surface of the photonic interposer;
encapsulating the electronic chip with an encapsulation material so that the encapsulation material leaves the grating coupler exposed to air;
placing the photonic interposer on a carrier mount to cover the grating coupler;
subsequent to placing photonic interposer on the carrier mount, forming electronic connections on a second surface of the photonic interposer opposite the first surface; and
subsequent to forming the electronic connections, removing the carrier mount.
11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein encapsulating the electronic chip is performed subsequent to attaching the electronic chip to the first surface of the photonic interposer.
12 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising separating the photonic interposer into a plurality of systems each comprising an electronic chip and a grating coupler subsequent to removing the carrier mount.
13 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising attaching a fiber to the first surface of the photonic interposer subsequent to removing the protective material so that the fiber, when attached, is optically coupled to the grating coupler.
14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the fiber is at a non-zero angle with respect to the first surface of the photonic interposer when the fiber is optically coupled to the grating coupler.
15 . A photonic package comprising:
a photonic interposer;
a first electronic chip disposed on the photonic interposer;
a circuit board having a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface, wherein the photonic interposer is coupled to the first surface of the circuit board;
a voltage regulator module (VRM) coupled to the second surface of the circuit board; and
a connection configured to provide an output voltage of the VRM to the first electronic chip, wherein the connection traverses the circuit board and the photonic interposer.
16 . The photonic package of claim 15 , further comprising a substrate and a socket, wherein the photonic interposer is disposed on the substrate and the substrate is disposed on the socket.
17 . The photonic package of claim 16 , wherein the connection further traverses the substrate and the socket.
18 . The photonic package of claim 15 , wherein the photonic package further comprises a power bus configured to provide an input voltage to the voltage regulator module.
19 . The photonic package of claim 18 , wherein the voltage regulator module receives the input voltage from the power bus and regulates the output voltage to the first electronic chip.
20 . The photonic package of claim 15 , wherein the first electronic chip is in contact with the photonic interposer.
21 . The photonic package of claim 15 , further comprising a lid covering the photonic interposer and a cold plate covering the lid, wherein the lid is in thermal contact with the first electronic chip.