The demonstrated capability will enable continued scaling of the bandwidth density and power efficiency of next-generation silicon-photonics-based transceivers, addressing the requirements for short-reach optical interconnects in high-performance AI/ML compute clusters.

“Imec’s optical I/O R&D programme aims at disruptive scaling of both bandwidth density and power consumption of silicon-integrated optical interconnects, which often present conflicting requirements,” says Imec’s Joris Van Campenhout, “our new 32-channel WDM filter enables Tbps-scale aggregate bandwidth per optical fiber using individual lane rates of only 32Gbps, enabling error-free link operation without power-hungry digital signal processing. Leveraging its compact footprint, low optical losses, and high wavelength tuning efficiency, the demonstrated WDM filter opens a pathway to Tbps/mm-scale optical interconnects with overall power efficiencies of just 1pJ/bit.”