VI Systems GmbH

1
Nikolay Ledentsov VI Systems GmbH, Berlin, Germany
Nanotechnology in Data Communications Market
Opportunituies and the Role of Bilateral
Cooperation
2
Information Society Facts

• Information traffic growth 1000 fold per
  decade
• Last 3 years More information generated and
  stored than over the previous history of human
  beings
• Electronics consumes 7 of electricity generated
  in the USA
• Datacenters alone consumed 1.5 in 2006, power
  doubles each 5 years
• Connector Market US45B, doubles each 10
  years

CITIT (2004) , ATT (OFC 2007), Ethernent
Alliance (2007)
EMC2
LBNL (2007)
Report to Congress, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, August 2, 2007 IDC (2007)
Bishop Associates. Connector Industry
Forecast (2007)
3
Moores Law in COPPER Data Communications
no copper solutions gt0.1-1 m

• Serial transmission speed increases 4-fold each 5
  years
• Driven by processor bandwidth growth, enabled by
  silicon scaling
• gt10Gbps Serial Copper Standards 16G FC, CEI-25,
  Infiniband 20G

4
Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VCSEL)

• 1-10Gb/s VCSEL is a key optical component for
  short range interconnects to extend the links
  length up to 100 - 300 m
• (beyond reach of copper)

Light pulses
VIS produces gt20Gb/s current-modulated VCSELs (no
reliability warranty)
Current pulses

• 2-fold speed increase requires 4-fold current
  increase
• 4-fold current increase causes lifetime reduction
  by a factor of 200
• Already 16 Gbps is problematic with current
  modulation

5
VIS Concept Reflectivity Modulation
Ligh pulses

• Voltage pulses affect refractive index and change
  reflectivity of the top mirror
• Signal transmission by intensity modulation
• No relability problems
• Efficient electrooptic medium is required (strong
  change of the refractive index in electric field)

Voltage pulses
Constant current

• Current density is small and constant (LEDs also)
• 40Gb/s is easy under applied voltage (low
  capacitance, 50 fF)

6
Relative Comparison of Electro-optic Devices
Telecom Advanced 40 Gb/s optical
transceiver (Fujitsu, 2008)
Datacom Scenario EOM VCSEL 850 nm
transmitter (VIS)
Size
35 W
1000
Power
1000
40 mW including modulator and amplifier
integrated circuits
Long haul telecom fiber-optic transceivers are
long based on electrooptic (interferometric)
intensity modulation 10, 40Gb/s

• gt25 GHz modulation bandwidth
• up to 100oC
• Target 28-40Gbps at 2V modulation (CMOS)

7
Role of Nanotechnology
Light pulses
Voltage pulses
EO modulator active region is based on
short-period superlattices (0.3 nm-thick layers
are used)
Active region of the laser section is based on
submonolayer (lt0.3 nm nominal thickness) QUANTUM
DOTS
Constant current
Multilayer Bragg reflectors 20-40 nm- thick
layers, gradient superlattices, thickness control
lt0.5 nm
Atomic lattice transmission electron microscopy
image of submonolayer QUANTUM DOTS used in the
active region

• Nanotechnology
• Picotechnology (lt300 pm)

8
Strategy Vertically Integrated Systems

• Mainstream CMOS
• vertical integration of chips and interconnects

• Vertical integration of VCSELs to CMOS chips

• Integartion of advanced active medium Quantum
  Dots and superlattice nanostructures
• Vertical monolithic integration of VCSELs and
  modulators

• 100Gb/s packaging Integration with CMOS
  nanotechnology

9
Example Connectors Cables for HDTV screens
Image capture and display devices have
requirements to support resolutions up to 4096 x
3072 at 24 fps (frames per second) with bit
depths of 12 bits per channel. This generates a
data payload greater than 10 Gb/s, even without
allowing for blanking. Correction by
Equalizers? the undefined characteristics of
the cable above 4.5 GHz, together with the
requirement for very high equalizer gain,
indicate that this would not be a practical
solution. http//www.planetanalog.com/features/
analog/showArticle.jhtml?articleID198900084
50 m copper cable at 10 Gb/s Signal is
attenuated 10000-fold
Figure Frequency response of a 50m sample of
Belden 1694A, gt10 GHz - 5 dB/GHz

• Copper is bulky, heavy and power consuming gt5
  Gb/s
• Signal equalization is power and cost-consuming
  and does not work at gt5 GHz
• Optical solutions are coming

10
Example Connectors USB Interconnects
Expected USB 4.0 speed in Gbit/s (Predictio.net)
USB 4.0
45-65 Gb/s
USB 3.0 (2009) includes an option of optical link

• 2007 2.6 Billion USB units
• 2012 4.0 Billion USB units
• 
  (Source InStat)

• Transition to optical interconnects beyond 16-20
  Gb/s is inavoidable

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Impact on the value chain

• 4 Billion active optical USB interconnects
• 8-16 Billion optical components
• 100-200 new mass-production III-V epitaxial
  reactors working day and night
• Explosion in high-purity materails Ga, In, Al,
  As, P...
• 4 Billion active optical USB interconnects
• 8-24 Billion CMOS drivers, amplifiers, control
  ICs, ... enabled by the key optical component
• new CMOS fabs
• new packaging fabs
• Communication-attached segment of the worldwide
  electronics market of gtUS 1.4 trillion

12
Scientific Cooperation with Zh. Alferovs Lab
A.F. Ioffe Institutes team Funding
Research VW (Quantum Dots, three projects since
1993) 250 000 Euro BMBF Referat 514 (94-96) InP
Laser 125 000 Euro BMBF Referat 514 (98-01) QD
HP Laser 150 000 Euro BMBF Referat 525 (99-03)
QD VCSEL 150 000 Euro BMBF Referat 511 (99-03)
GaN 150 000 Euro DFG (since 1997) 50 000
Euro NATO SfP (99-04) GaN 150 000 Euro EU
Dotcom (QDs, 99-04) 100 000 Euro AvH equipment
donation
75 000 Euro EU SANDiE (Nanostructures,
03-07) 220 000 Euro NATO SfS (07-10) Single QD
Cryptography 100 000 Euro EU
VISIT (08-11) 240 000 Euro A.F. Ioffe
Institutes team funding Visits BMBF (since
1994) 200 000 Euro DAAD Professorship 99-02
200 000 Euro DFG Professorship 03, 06 85
000 Euro DFG visits (since 1994) 115 000
Euro Humboldt Fellowships (1 Award, 5
Fellowships) 350 000 Euro Contracts with
spin-off companies (03-08) 400 000
Euro RESEARCH OVERALL 1 610
000 Euro VISITS OVERALL 950 000
Euro TOTAL 2 560 000 Euro
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Scientific Results
Yellow- members of the joint German-Russian team
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Spin-off Companies
2003 Nanosemiconductor GmbH (presently Innolume)
development of Quantum Dot Lasers Last
Round 8.6 M (2008) 2006 VI Systems GmbH
development of ultrahigh-speed optical
components Last Round 1M (2007)
Total related projects 5M
(2008) 2008 PBC Lasers GmbH
development of high-brightness (1o beam) laser
diodes Last Round 4M (2008)
All companies related to TU Berlin Ioffe
cooperation founded/co-founded by N.L.
15
Thank You!
www.v-i-systems.com www.verticallyintegratedsystem
s.com

• VI-Systems GmbH acknowledges support