Low-power optical network-on-chip using low-loss multilayer silicon wire waveguide

Photonic network-on-chip can benefit the future integrated structures only if it consumes less power. The optical devices used in the network router such as waveguides and switches must be low power to make the overall network power efficient. In this paper, a passive 4 x 4 optical network-on-chip router has been designed employing wavelength-division multiplexing using a novel multilayer silicon wire waveguide. The switching device, serially coupled double-ring resonator for the router, is also based on this waveguide. The designed router is first of its kind that comprises a multilayer silicon photonic wire waveguide and an improvised waveguide-based ring resonator switch. The performance evaluation of designed on-chip optical network router has been carried out in terms of bit error rate (BER). It has been shown that the designed optical network router offers low losses and better BER performance due to its novel low-loss devices and structure. Additionally, the designed network is complementary MOS compatible and non-blocking, i.e., all processing cores can transmit data to each other on all available wavelengths without any conflict.