Microring-based multi-chip WDM photonic module

We report on a packaged prototype of a WDM photonic transceiver. It is an all-solid state hybrid assembly based on 130nm SOI photonic circuitry integrated with a 40nm CMOS VLSI driver. Our prototype supports eight tunable WDM channels operating at 10Gb/s, each capable of both transmitting and receiving data on the same chip. We discuss two options to close the link using the optical fiber or a waveguide bridge chip. We provide integration details and supporting link measurement data to describe packaged photonic module and its power efficient functionality with its on-chip power per channel averaging 1.3pJ/bit, excluding off-chip laser electrical power.