Distributed optical switching and interconnect chip and system

Abstract

This invention discloses a distributed optical switching and interconnect chip and system having multiple connected nodes, each node including an optical routing unit with one side having multiple internal input/output ports and the other side having multiple external input/output ports, a laser array and a photodetector array, connected to the internal input and output ports, respectively. The external output ports are connected to the external input ports of other nodes through optical waveguides. The signals received by the photodetectors can be dropped to the node or re-routed to the lasers by an electronic packet switching chip for re-transmission to other nodes. The invention integrates and encapsulates laser arrays, photodetector arrays, optical routing units and interconnection network in one chip. The distributed optical switching chip and system architecture have the advantages of high scalability, low latency and low power consumption, and can be used for multi-chip computing systems and datacenters.