4 x 4 Integrated Switches Based on On-Chip Wireless Connection through Optical Phased Arrays

Optical Wireless Networks on-Chip are an emerging technology recently proposed to improve the interconnection between different processing units in densely integrated computing architectures. In this work, we propose a 4 x 4 optical wireless switch (OWS) based on optical phased arrays (OPAs) for broadband reconfigurable on-chip communication. The OPA and OWS design criteria are reported. Moreover, the performances of the OWS are analyzed and optimized considering the electromagnetic propagation in on-chip multilayer structures, with different thicknesses of the cladding layer. The effect on the OWS behavior of a non-ideal distribution of the power in input to the OPA is also investigated by designing a 1 x 7 beam splitter, based on a single-stage multi-mode interference (MMI) device to be used as a single element of the OWS. Then, the MMI output signals are considered in input to the transmitting OPAs and the OWS performances are evaluated.