Search

US-12627380-B2 - Communication interface unit

US12627380B2US 12627380 B2US12627380 B2US 12627380B2US-12627380-B2

Abstract

An optical input/output (I/O) system includes at least one electronic circuit die on at least one first substrate on a first side of a printed circuit board (PCB), where the at least one electronic circuit die includes at least 4 electrical inputs and at least 4 electrical outputs that are each configured to operate with a speed of at least 10 Gb/s. The optical I/O system also includes at least one photonic circuit die on at least one second substrate on a second side of the PCB, opposite the first side of the PCB. A plurality of electrical connections are implemented through the PCB, and electrically connect the at least one photonic circuit die with the at least 4 electrical inputs and the at least 4 electrical outputs of the at least one electronic circuit die.

Inventors

  • Armond Hairapetian
  • Christopher R. Doerr

Assignees

  • TeraSignal Corp.

Dates

Publication Date
20260512
Application Date
20230119

Claims (20)

  1. 1 . An optical input/output (I/O) system comprising: at least one electronic circuit die on at least one first substrate that is attached to a first side of a printed circuit board (PCB), wherein the at least one electronic circuit die comprises at least 4 electrical inputs and at least 4 electrical outputs that are each configured to operate with a speed of at least 10 Gb/s; at least one photonic circuit die and at least one electronic integrated circuit (EIC) that are attached to and electrically coupled via at least one second substrate, wherein: the at least one second substrate is attached via at least one pluggable socket to a second side of the PCB, opposite the first side of the PCB, and the at least one EIC comprises at least 4 electrical inputs and at least 4 electrical outputs; wherein the at least one first substrate and the at least one second substrate are separate and independently attachable to respective opposite sides of the PCB; and a plurality of electrical connections through the PCB that form part of an electrical connection between the at least 4 electrical inputs and the at least 4 electrical outputs of the at least EIC with the at least 4 electrical inputs and the at least 4 electrical outputs of the at least one electronic circuit die.
  2. 2 . The optical I/O system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of electrical connections through the PCB comprise a plurality of straight-line vias in the PCB that connect the at least 4 electrical inputs and the at least 4 electrical outputs of the at least one EIC with the at least 4 electrical inputs and the at least 4 electrical outputs of the at least one electronic circuit die.
  3. 3 . The optical I/O system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one first substrate is attached to the first side of the PCB by a ball-grid array (BGA), wherein the at least one second substrate is attached to the second side of the PCB by a pluggable socket, and wherein the BGA and the pluggable socket are connected to the plurality of electrical connections.
  4. 4 . The optical I/O system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one second substrate attached to the second side of the PCB comprises a plurality of second substrates that are stacked on each other.
  5. 5 . The optical I/O system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one photonic circuit die attached to the at least one second substrate comprises at least one photonic integrated circuit (PIC) comprising at least one of a transmitter PIC or a receiver PIC.
  6. 6 . The optical I/O system of claim 5 , further comprising at least one of (i) driving circuitry for the transmitter PIC or (ii) transimpedance amplification (TIA) circuitry for the receiver PIC.
  7. 7 . The optical I/O system of claim 6 , wherein at least one of the driving circuitry for the transmitter PIC or the TIA circuitry for the receiver PIC is integrated in the at least one electronic circuit die.
  8. 8 . The optical I/O system of claim 6 , wherein at least one of the driving circuitry for the transmitter PIC or the TIA circuitry for the receiver PIC is implemented as an electronic die on the second side of the PCB, adjacent to the transmitter PIC or the receiver PIC.
  9. 9 . The optical I/O system of claim 6 , wherein at least one of the driving circuitry for the transmitter PIC or the TIA circuitry for the receiver PIC comprises a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) equalizer.
  10. 10 . The optical I/O system of claim 5 , further comprising control circuitry for the at least one PIC, which is implemented inside at least one of the at least one EIC for the at least one PIC and a separate EIC.
  11. 11 . The optical I/O system of claim 5 , wherein the at least one PIC comprises a plurality of PICs that are attached to a given substrate among the at least one second substrate, wherein a first PIC is attached to a first side of the given substrate that faces towards the PCB, and wherein a second PIC is attached to a second side of the given substrate that faces away from the PCB, opposite the first side of the given substrate.
  12. 12 . The optical I/O system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one second substrate is arranged on at least one edge of the second side of the PCB.
  13. 13 . The optical I/O system of claim 1 , further comprising a lid for the at least one photonic circuit die that comprises mounts for a plurality of fiber array connectors.
  14. 14 . The optical I/O system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one photonic circuit die comprises photonic circuits that are made from silicon photonics.
  15. 15 . The optical I/O system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one photonic circuit die comprises a planar lightwave circuit (PLC) that is connected to at least one PIC and to at least one optical fiber.
  16. 16 . The optical I/O system of claim 15 , wherein the PLC comprises a waveguide power splitter.
  17. 17 . The optical I/O system of claim 15 , wherein the PLC comprises at least one of a wavelength multiplexer or a wavelength demultiplexer.
  18. 18 . The optical I/O system of claim 15 , wherein the PLC overhangs an edge of a substrate among the at least one second substrate.
  19. 19 . The optical I/O system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one photonic circuit die is arranged around a perimeter of a region in which components for the at least one electronic circuit die are arranged.
  20. 20 . A method of co-packaging at least one electronic circuit die with at least one photonic circuit die on a printed circuit board (PCB), the method comprising: assembling the at least one electronic circuit die on at least one first substrate; assembling the at least one photonic circuit die and at least one electronic integrated circuit (EIC) on at least one second substrate so that the at least one photonic circuit die is electrically coupled to the at least one EIC, wherein the at least one first substrate and the at least one second substrate are separate and independently attachable to the PCB; soldering the at least one first substrate to a first side of the PCB; removably attaching, without soldering, the at least one second substrate to a second side of the PCB, opposite the first side of the PCB; and interconnecting the at least one electronic circuit die and the at least one EIC with a plurality of electrical connections through the PCB.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure generally relates to photonic integrated circuits (PICs). BACKGROUND Modern communication and computing architectures increasingly rely on semiconductor based integrated circuits with large numbers of high-speed input/output (I/O) connections to transfer enormous amounts of data for high-speed communications and computations. Examples include high throughput switches for networking, and computing clusters for high-performance computing (HPC), and artificial intelligence (AI) applications where numerous interconnected servers must communicate massive data sets for near-real-time performance. Other examples include massive MIMO cellular base stations and optical telecommunications systems where core network interconnections and intelligent edge computing must provide high bandwidth and low latency communication for a variety of consumer, autonomous vehicle, and industrial Internet-of-Things (IOT) applications. SUMMARY One general aspect of the present disclosure includes an optical input/output (I/O) system including: at least one electronic circuit die on at least one first substrate on a first side of a printed circuit board (PCB), where the at least one electronic circuit die includes at least 4 electrical inputs and at least 4 electrical outputs that are each configured to operate with a speed of at least 10 Gb/s. The optical I/O system also includes at least one photonic circuit die on at least one second substrate on a second side of the PCB, opposite the first side of the PCB. The optical I/O system also includes a plurality of electrical connections through the PCB that electrically connect the at least one photonic circuit die with the at least 4 electrical inputs and the at least 4 electrical outputs of the at least one electronic circuit die. Implementations may include one or more of the following features. The optical I/O system where the plurality of electrical connections through the PCB include a plurality of straight-line vias in the PCB that connect the at least one photonic circuit die with the at least 4 electrical inputs and the at least 4 electrical outputs of the at least one electronic circuit die. The optical I/O system where the at least one first substrate is attached to the first side of the PCB by a first ball-grid array (BGA). The optical I/O system may also include where the at least one second substrate is attached to the second side of the PCB by a second BGA. The optical I/O system where the first BGA and the second BGA are connected to the plurality of electrical connections. The optical I/O system where the at least one second substrate on the second side of the PCB includes a plurality of second substrates that are stacked on each other. The optical I/O system where the at least one photonic circuit die on the second side of the PCB includes at least one photonic integrated circuit (PIC) including at least one of a transmitter PIC or a receiver PIC. The optical I/O system where the optical I/O system further includes at least one of (i) driving circuitry for the transmitter PIC or (ii) transimpedance amplification (TIA) circuitry for the receiver PIC. The optical I/O system where at least one of the driving circuitry for the transmitter PIC or the TIA circuitry for the receiver PIC is integrated in the at least one electronic circuit die. The optical I/O system where at least one of the driving circuitry for the transmitter PIC or the TIA circuitry for the receiver PIC is implemented as electronic die on the second side of the PCB, adjacent to the transmitter PIC or the receiver PIC. The optical I/O system where at least one of the driving circuitry for the transmitter PIC or the TIA circuitry for the receiver PIC includes a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) equalizer. The optical I/O system further including control circuitry for the at least one PIC, which is implemented either inside at least one electronic integrated circuit (EIC) for the at least one PIC or in a separate EIC. The optical I/O system where the at least one PIC includes a plurality of PICs that are attached to a second substrate among the at least one second substrate. The optical I/O system where a first PIC is attached to a first side of the second substrate that faces towards the PCB. The optical I/O system where a second PIC is attached to a second side of the second substrate that faces away from the PCB, opposite the first side of the second substrate. The optical I/O system where the at least one second substrate is arranged on at least one edge of the second side of the PCB. The optical I/O system further including a lid for the at least one photonic circuit die that includes mounts for a plurality of fiber array connectors. The optical I/O system where the at least one photonic circuit die includes photonic circuits that are made from silicon photonics. The optical I/O system where the at least one photonic circuit die on the second side of the