500-Gbps Parallel-WDM Optical Interconnect

This paper describes a 500-Gbps parallel wavelength-division multiplexed (PWDM) optical interconnect where 48 channels of 10.42-Gbps data are transmitted over a parallel 12-fiber ribbon with 4 wavelengths per fiber. The transmitter and receiver are each chip-scale packages with a footprint of 5 mm times 8 mm and a combined power consumption of 3 W. This work is motivated by the continually increasing bandwidth needs of short-distance computer processor interconnects, which are demanding optical solutions that maximize bandwidth per unit area, power consumption, and cost