A Full-Duplex 5×5 Optical Router Based on a Hybrid Photonic-Plasmonic Switch

Abstract

An optical router is an essential component of a photonic network-on-chip (PNoC). Normally, an optical router consists of traditional optical elements such as the micro-ring resonator (MRR) and the Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI). This type of router has many disadvantages, such as a large size, lack of thermal stability and low speed, although their manufacturing technologies are mature. In this paper, we propose a full duplex 5×5 optical router based on a hybrid photonic-plasmonic switch (HPPS). The HPPS has the advantages of compactness, thermal stability and high speed, which can effectively solve the problems of traditional optical routers. In this work, each optical communication link in the optical router is independent, and each optical communication link no longer shares the same switch, which avoids blocking between channels and achieves full-duplex communication. The modelling of the optical router using the HPPS is performed through MATLAB as well as by a finite-difference-time-domain (FDTD) simulation. The maximum and average insertion losses (ILs) of the router are 5.4 dB and 3.5 dB, respectively, and the router has a fast switching time (100 ps). The results show that this optical router has the advantages of low loss and low energy consumption and provides a 5×5 full-duplex optical router for the PNoC.

Modeling and Performance Analysis of a Fault-Tolerant 3D Photonic Network-on-Chip Based on Hybrid Photonics–Plasmonics

“…The simulated on-chip optical networks range in size from 3 × 3 × 3 to 8 × 8 × 3. Following reference [ 22 ], Tables 1 and 2 show simulation parameter settings of the electrical layer and optical layer, respectively.…”

“…Therefore, this section studies the optical performance of fault-tolerant routers based on these two parameters. According to reference [ 22 ], optical crosstalk is formulated as …”

“…The IL can be calculated using the following formula [ 22 ]: where IL bar and IL cross are the IL in the bar state and in the cross state; according to [ 32 ], they are 0.4 dB and 2.1 dB, respectively. IL bend and IL crossing are the optical waveguide bends and the crossing loss; according to [ 21 , 30 ], they are 0.005 dB and 0.04 dB, respectively.…”

“…However, the above two types of modulators have defects such as large size, low modulation rate and susceptibility to temperature. SPP hybrid waveguide modulators are small in size, have a high modulation rate and are not easily affected by temperature [19][20][21][22], which has attracted extensive attention from scholars. 2.4.…”

“…However, some ports occupied the same switch, resulting in congestion among ports and affecting data transmission efficiency. In reference [ 22 ], we designed a high-performance full-duplex 5 × 5 router based on hybrid photonics–plasmonics and applied it to a two-dimensional mesh network. The performance analysis of the router was carried out, and the experimental results showed that its performance is superior.…”