MULTI-CHIP ELECTRO-PHOTONIC NETWORKS AND PHOTONIC MEMORY FABRICS FOR INTERCONNECTING MULTIPLE CIRCUIT PACKAGES
Multi-chip electro-photonic networks for interconnecting multiple circuit packages via photonic channels. Examples of a computing system include a first circuit package, a second circuit package, and one or more inter-chip bidirectional photonic channels interconnecting the first and second circuit packages. The first circuit package can include one or more memory nodes. The second circuit package can include multiple compute nodes and intra-chip bidirectional photonic channels interconnecting the compute nodes.
1 . A circuit package comprising:
a photonic integrated circuit having a first surface, the photonic integrated circuit comprising
an optical modulator,
a detector, and
an optical waveguide connecting the optical modulator and the detector;
a first electronic integrated circuit on the first surface, the first electronic integrated circuit being electrically coupled to control the optical modulator; and
a second electronic integrated circuit on the first surface and separated from the first electronic integrated circuit, the second electronic integrated circuit being electrically coupled to receive signals from the detector.
2 . The circuit package of claim 1 , further comprising a second optical modulator, a second detector, and a second optical waveguide connecting the second optical modulator and the second detector, the first electronic integrated circuit being electrically coupled to control the receive signals from the second detector, and the second electronic integrated circuit being electrically coupled to control the second optical modulator.
3 . The circuit package of claim 2 , wherein the first and second optical modulators, the first and second detectors, and the first and second waveguides form a bidirectional photonic channel between the first electronic integrated circuit and the second electronic integrated circuit.
4 . The circuit package of claim 3 , wherein the bidirectional photonic channel comprises multiple unidirectional photonic links between the first and second electronic integrated circuits in both directions.
5 . The circuit package of claim 3 , wherein the first electronic integrated circuit is a first processing element and the second electronic integrated circuit is a second processing element.
6 . The circuit package of claim 4 , wherein each of the processing elements comprises a message router including a photonic-channel interface, the bidirectional photonic channel interfacing at a first end with the photonic-channel interface of the first processing element and at a second end with the photonic-channel interface of the second processing element, the circuit package being configured to optically transfer a packet between the message routers of the first and second processing elements.
7 . The circuit package of claim 4 , wherein the first processing element and the second processing element are in a single semiconductor chip.
8 . The circuit package of claim 1 , wherein the first electronic integrated circuit and the second electronic integrated circuit are in separate semiconductor chips.
9 . The circuit package of claim 1 , wherein the first electronic integrated circuit and the photonic integrated circuit are in a single semiconductor chip.
10 . The circuit package of claim 1 , wherein the first electronic integrated circuit and the photonic integrated circuit are in different layers of the single semiconductor chip.
11 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the second electronic integrated circuit comprises a transimpedance amplifier with an input connected to an electrical output of the detector.
12 . The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the second electronic integrated circuit comprises a deserializer with an input connected to an output of the transimpedance amplifier.
13 . The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the first electronic circuit comprises a serializer connected to an electrical input of the optical modulator.
14 . The circuit package of claim 1 , further comprising an optical coupling structure optically coupling the waveguide to an optical fiber.
15 . The circuit package of claim 14 , wherein the optical coupling structure comprises an edge coupler.
16 . The circuit package of claim 14 , wherein the optical waveguide is a portion of an optical path connecting the optical coupling structure to the detector via the optical modulator.
17 . The circuit package of claim 1 , wherein the optical modulator is an electro-absorption modulator, a Mach-Zehnder modulator, or a ring modulator.
18 . The circuit package of claim 1 , wherein first electronic integrated circuit comprises a modulator driver electrically connected to the optical modulator and a distance between the modulator driver and the optical modulator is smaller than 200 μm.
19 . The circuit package of claim 1 , wherein the detector is a photodiode.