8^th International Symposium for Optical Interconnect in Data Centres

• Organiser

  Tolga Tekin, Fraunhofer IZM, Germany
  Nikos Pleros, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
  Richard Pitwon, Resolute Photonics, Ireland
  Dimitrios Apostolopoulos, National Technical University of Athens, Greece
  Paraskevas Bakopoulos, NVIDIA, Greece

• Day & Time

  21.09.2022, 08:30 – 17:30

• Location

  Room Delhi

• Description

  Data centres have continued to evolve dramatically over the past two years with hyperscale now the dominant form of data centre in the world, accelerating the convergence of 5G/6G and even quantum interconnect with traditional datacom into future data centres. This annual symposium continues to evolve accordingly to ad-dress these new disruptive technologies.

  We address evolution of optical interconnect at the front panel with higher density SN/MDC type connectors, which increase  optical channel density at the font panel dramatically over traditional MPO.

  Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) and Near Packaged Optics (NPO) are driving the most dramatic industrial scale photonic integration exercise ever known, while advances in the underlying Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) platforms introduce exciting new materials to further reduce power consumption on optical operations and advances in thermo-plastics are opening the door to solder-reflow resistant complex, low-cost micro-optical components for higher temperature environments.

  Finally, the last two years have seen the introduction of quantum security products, such as quantum random number generators, of quantum networks, quantum computers and machine learning techniques. Quantum communication will become an indispensable means of securing any communication between data centres and the outside world while "Quantum as a Service" (QaaS) schemes will increasingly allow access to quantum computer facilities within the data centre. In parallel, Machine Learning techniques are expected to facilitate signal conditioning, routing and security functionalities by replacing conventional digital processing circuitry and offering a higher energy efficiency framework.

  The symposium includes only Invited Speakers from industry and academia.

  The symposium supported by EU-H2020-MASSTART.

• Programme

  Session 1: Switching and Thinking (105 min, 15 min per speaker)
   Trends in next-generation data center interconnects, Jörg-Peter Elbers, ADVA, Germany
   Scaling Programmable Energy Efficient Photonic Interconnects beyond Tbps, Ioannis Tomkos & Moshe Nazarathy, University of Patras, Greece & Technion, Israel
   Elad Mentovich, NVIDIA, Israel
   Simplification of Intra Data Center Architectures with Point-to-Multipoint Coherent Transceivers, Antonio Napoli, Infinera, Germany
   Enabling technologies for optical switching in data centers, Maxim Kuschnerov, Huawei Research Center, Germany
   Nanoseconds photonic networks for computing with shared memory, Nicola Calabretta, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
   Optical switching and networking for distributed deep learning systems, George Zervas, University College London, UK

  Coffee break (30 min)

  Session 2: Quantum Data Centres (105 min, 15 min per speaker)
   How to build a commercial quantum network, Andrew Lord, BT, UK
   Role of optical interconnect in budling scalable and multi-tenant quantum computing as a quantum data centre, Reza Nejabati, University of Bristol, UK
   Silicon photonics technology for future large-scale deployment of quantum communication links, Ségolène Olivier, CEA-LETI, France
   Quantum noise limited ultra-low energy links for data centers, Darko Zibar, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
   Optical interconnects for cryogenic applications, Paolo Pintus, University of California Santa Barbara, USA
   Innovations in Optical Interconnect for High Performance Data Center Systems, Bernard Lee, Senko Advanced Components, Malaysia
   Silicon Photonics for Data Center interconnects and security applications, Miltiadis Moralis-Pegios, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

  Lunch (60 min)

  Session 3: Hyperscale and Hyperdense (105 min, 15 min per speaker)
   Novel Thermoplastic Resins for Optical Interconnects, Gabrie Hoogland, SABIC, Netherlands
   Intel’s participation in DARPA CHIPS, PIPES and Space-BACN programs - scaling new benchmarks in photonic performance and integration, Conor O'Keeffe, Intel, Ireland
   CPO for Radio Systems, Stephane Lessard, Ericsson, Italy
   Automated assembly solutions as key for mass manufacturing of high-speed photonic transceivers, Moritz Seyfried, ficonTEC, Germany
   Near Package Optics (NPO) module for PCIe Gen 5 interconnect, Tomoyuki Akahoshi, Kyocera, Japan
   Toward next-generation data center and HPC networks with co-packaged optics, Pavlos Maniotis, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, USA
   Faster, higher, stronger: co-packaged optics, Marian Bogdan Sirbu, Fraunhofer IZM, Germany

  Coffee break (30 min)

  Session 4: Integrating Photonics (105 min, 15 min per speaker)
   Photonic connectivity for accelerating AI computing, Keren Bergman, Columbia University, USA
   Programmable integrated photonics for Edge and Cloud data centers: Application and functionality scenarios, Jose Capmany, iPRONICS, Spain
   Photonic Crystal Surface Emitting Lasers (PCSELs) at multiple wavelengths for high bandwidth data communications, Calum Hill, Vector Photonics, UK
   Lars Zimmermann, IHP, Germany
   A Pockels- boost for PICs – How communication chips will reach new performance levels, Stefan Abel, Lumiphase, Switzerland
   Unrolling the new AI era – photon by photon, Angelina Totović, Celestial AI, USA & Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
   Plasmonics – Key Technology to the Terabaud Age, Juerg Leuthold & David Moor, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
  

• Registration (Exhibitors and Exhibition Visitors)

  A one day pass for on-site attendance of this symposium by exhibitors and exhibition visitors is available for CHF 250.
  Please register by filling the registration form and sending it to the registration team: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

• Organisers

  	Organiser 1: Tolga Tekin, Fraunhofer IZM, Germany Biography: Dr. Tolga Tekin has received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Technical University of Berlin, Germany. His background is optical signal processing and photonic integrated circuits. He led projects on optical interconnects and silicon photonics packaging. He is group manager of Photonics and Plasmonics Systems at Fraunhofer IZM, with the focus on photonic interconnects and optical-wireless networks. He is coordinator of European ‘H2020-MASSTART’ project.
  	Organiser 2: Nikos Pleros, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece Biography: Dr. Nikos Pleros joined the faculty of the Department of Informatics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, in September 2007, where he is currently serving as an Associate Professor. His research interests extend along a broad range of photonic technologies and their use for communications, computing and sensing, including photonic neural networks, optical RAMs, optical interconnects, photonic integrated circuit technologies, optical switching and fiber-wireless for 5G mobile networks. He has more than 350 archival journal publications and conference presentations including several invited contributions, while his work has been cited >4700 times (GS). He holds 3 US Patents in the fields of photonic biosensing and neuromorphic photonics. He has held positions of responsibility at several major conference committees including ECOC, OFC and SPIE Photonics West and has coordinated several FP7 and H2020 European projects. He has received the 2003 IEEE Photonics Society Graduate Student Fellowship, the 2018 AUTH Excellence Award for his research project funding ID, the 2021 Greek Innovator Award and the 2021 AUTH Excellence Award for Innovation and Research.
  	Organiser 3: Richard Pitwon, Resolute Photonics, Ireland Biography: Dr. Richard Pitwon has more than 22 years transformational expertise as an engineer, scientist and director in optical and photonic system interconnect, integration and architectures for hyperscale data centres, HPC, 6G and IoT data-communications applications. He is currently the CEO of the photonics and quantum design company Resolute Photonics, which he founded in May 2018. He holds 55 patents in diverse fields and has authored over 65 peer-reviewed publications including 5 international standards. He is a Chartered Engineer (CEng), Fellow of the IET (FIET), Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FInstP) and Senior Member of both the IEEE and SPIE. He is the current chair of the IEC international standards subcommittee on fibre optic interconnecting devices and passive components (IEC/SC86B), chair of its BSI mirror committee (GEL 86/2) and principal expert member (UK) on IEC, ISO, ITU and CENELEC standards committees for optical interconnect, photonic integrated circuits, optical circuit boards, embedded electronic assembly, co-packaged optics, quantum computing and quantum communication standards. He is also the chair of the IEEE UK and Ireland Photonics Chapter and IEEE UK and Ireland Quantum Group and the founder and organiser of various conferences including the IEEE British and Irish Conference on Optics and Photonics (BICOP) and the Joint Symposia on Quantum Technologies series. Finally he is a contributor to EU and UK government strategy on photonics and quantum technologies and currently sits on the Photonics 21 Board of Stakeholders.
  	Organiser 4: Dimitrios Apostolopoulos, National Technical University of Athens, Greece Biography: Dr. Dimitrios Apostolopoulos received his PhD in Photonics Communications in 2009 and works as a senior researcher since then at the Photonics Communications Research Laboratory, ICCS/NTUA.  Dr. Apostolopoulos is the author or co-author of more than 110 publications in top of the line (IEEE, OSA) journals and presentations in the most prestigious and highly competitive optical fiber technology conferences. Moreover, he has participated in a large number of EU and national funded projects including PHOXTROT, 5GPHOS, SPIRIT, EUROFOS, PLATON and ACTPHAST. Dimitrios serves as a TPC member of ECOC, GLOBECOM and NN Conference and is the winner of the 2009 Dimitris N. Chorafas foundation award. He also holds an MSc in Business Administration (MBA) from the Hellenic Open University.
  	Organiser 5: Paraskevas Bakopoulos, NVIDIA, Greece Biography: Dr. Paraskevas Bakopoulos is a Sr. Staff Engineer at NVIDIA and leads the Photonic Systems group in Athens, Greece. His research interests extend to a broad range of photonics-enabled technologies that can bring added value to HPC and datacenter networks, with main focus on high-speed optical interconnects and optical switching. He has more than 150 journal publications and conference presentations and holds 25 patents in the fields of photonics and datacenter networks. He has served as a TPC member at OFC and currently sits on the Photonics 21 Board of Stakeholders.

• Speakers

  Speaker 1: Jörg-Peter Elbers, ADVA, Germany
  Title: Trends in next-generation data center interconnects
  Abstract: Analyzing traffic growth and silicon roadmaps, this talk will investigate development directions of next-generation data center interconnects. Topics such as pluggable transceivers vs co-packaged optics, direct detect vs coherent interfaces, and hyperscaler vs enterprise data center solutions will be discussed.
  Biography: Jörg-Peter Elbers is Senior Vice President and globally responsible for technology strategy, research, standardization and IPR management at ADVA. He has more than 25 years of experience in packet-optical communications and networking.

  Speaker 2: Ioannis Tomkos & Moshe Nazarathy, University of Patras, Greece & Technion, Israel
  Title: Scaling Programmable Energy Efficient Photonic Interconnects beyond Tbps
  Abstract: The tremendous increase of traffic demands in recent years and the particular requirements of datacenter networks, demand the availability of single-fiber single-lane (spatial or spectral) I/O interfaces of datacenter interconnects that can scale beyond 1.6Tbps while achieving low levels of energy consumption and cost per bit. In that direction, we discuss the possible replacement/augmentation of power-hungry and bandwidth-limited electronic digital to analogue converters (eDACs) and digital signal processing (DSP) circuits, currently being utilized in ultra-high-speed transceivers, with programmable photonics based integrated circuits such as all-optical DACs (oDACs) and all-optical coherent receivers.
  Biography: Dr. Ioannis Tomkos is a Professor at the ECE Department of University of Patras. In the past he held various academic and managerial positions, of increasing responsibility, at companies and academic institutions around the world (e.g. USA, Spain, France, Cyprus). His research group has participated and led numerous R&D projects. The outcomes of his activities resulted in over 650 co-authored scientific archival articles that have received over 11.800 citations (h-factor=51) as per Google Scholar & over 150.000 reads at ResearchGate. For his scientific achievements he has been elected as Fellow of all 3 major ECE societies (IET - 2010, OPTICA - 2012 and IEEE - 2018).

  Speaker 4: Antonio Napoli, Infinera, Germany
  Title: Simplification of Intra Data Center Architectures with Point-to-Multipoint Coherent Transceivers
  Biography: Antonio Napoli holds a Ph.D. from the Politecnico di Torino. He was with Siemens, NSN, and Coriant in 2006, 2007, 2013, respectively. Since 2018, he has been with Infinera, where he is leading advance research topics with particular focus on point-to-multipoint optical networks. He served as an OFC TPC member (2017-2019). He has been three times guest editor for JOCN and JLT. He is the technical coordinator of 3 Marie Curie H2020 projects. His research interests include DSP, wideband optical systems, transmission modeling, and ML/AI for optics. Dr. Napoli co-authored 7 patents, 240+ peer-to-peer reviewed articles, and one book chapter.
  

  Speaker 5: Maxim Kuschnerov, Huawei Research Center, Germany
  Title: Enabling technologies for optical switching in data centers
  Biography: Maxim Kuschnerov joined Huawei in 2016 and is now leading the optical research laboratories in Munich and Jena, Germany focusing on the topics of optical access, data center networks, coherent optical transceivers, optical switching, quantum security as well as optical design for automotive subsystems incl. augmented reality head up displays and intelligent headlights. He has more than 15 years of experience in optical research, development and product management, having started his career at Siemens and then working for Nokia Siemens Networks and Coriant before joining Huawei.

  Speaker 7: George Zervas, University College London, UK
  Title: Optical switching and networking for distributed deep learning systems
  Abstract: Machine learning models have been increasing in size ten times every year. Training such models requires thousands of interconnected custom processing units (GPUs, TPUs, xPUs). Network transactions significantly influence efficiency of the system and the training/completion time. The talk will provide an insight on the co-design of fast optical switching technologies, network architectures, control and MPI collective operations that can offer a step change in the performance and energy efficiency of distributed machine learning systems. 
  Biography: George Zervas is a professor of optical networked systems and EPSRC Fellow at University College London. He is the author of over 280 journal and conference papers with significant contributions to optical switching and networking for data centers and telecommunication networks. He is leading several large-scale national and international projects in optical network technologies and systems for Classical and Quantum Data Centers.

  Speaker 8: Andrew Lord, BT, UK
  Title: How to build a commercial quantum network
  Abstract: The talk will summarise BT’s journey towards quantum communications, highlighting the separate steps of: point to point QKD, networked QKD, global satellite QKD and ultimately a global quantum network. The talk will focus on the recent activity to build a quantum secured network in London, discussing the learning that has emerged during that activity. I will then move on to look at how customers are using the quantum network, and in particular to considering the intersection between the quantum network and the data  / services / applications layer. Finally the talk will look into the future towards the ultimate quantum internet.
  Biography: Andrew joined BT in 1985 after a BA in Physics from Oxford University. He has helped design a wide range of optical network systems and technologies, including long haul subsea and terrestrial DWDM networks He currently leads BT’s optical core and access research including optical access, high speed transmission, and Quantum Communications. He was Technical Program Chair for OFC 2015 and General Chair for OFC 2017; he will be TPC Chair of ECOC 2023. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Optical Communications and Networking, is Visiting Professor at Essex University, Senior Member of the IEEE and a BT Distinguished Engineer

  Speaker 10: Ségolène Olivier, CEA-LETI, France
  Title: Silicon photonics technology for future large-scale deployment of quantum communication links
  Abstract: First implementations of quantum secure communication links are being demonstrated worldwide with bulky quantum key distribution systems. Miniaturization of those systems through the integration of quantum number generators, quantum transmitters and receivers will be one of the keys for future large-scale development of a global quantum communication network, compatible with the existing fibre infrastructure and the co-existence with classical channels. Low-cost and scalable silicon photonics technology has reached a high level of maturity for conventional datacom and telecom applications, making it an excellent basis for the development of quantum photonic integrated circuits. This talk will review the main challenges associated with the development of silicon photonics quantum integrated components meeting the requirements of advanced quantum key distribution protocols.
  Biography: Dr. Segolene Olivier is the Quantum Photonics Program Manager at CEA-Leti. Since joining CEA-Leti in 2003, she has conducted R&D in many areas – IC interconnects, optical data storage, and III-V integrated photonics. In 2012, she joined the Silicon Photonics lab – leading collaborations with academia and industry on hybrid III-V on Si lasers, active and passive silicon photonics for telecom and datacom. She was coordinating a Horizon 2020 European project on Tb/s silicon photonic transmitters from 2016 to 2019. In 2019, she launched a research activity in integrated quantum photonics. 

  Speaker 11: Darko Zibar, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
  Title: Quantum noise limited ultra-low energy links for data centers
  Abstract: In this talk, we will address a longstanding and fundamental question on the most energy efficient approach to transport information. The ultimate limit (the quantum limit) on the minimum amount of energy needed to transport information is governed by the quantum theory and we will address methods of approaching it.
  Biography: Darko Zibar is Professor at the Department of Photonics Engineering, Technical University of Denmark and the group leader of Machine Learning in Photonics Systems (MLiPS) group. He is recipient of Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Award given by the Alexander von Humboldt foundation for his research efforts in applying machine learning to optical communication and measurement systems. 

  Speaker 12: Paolo Pintus, University of California Santa Barbara, USA
  Title: Optical interconnects for cryogenic applications
  Abstract: In emerging cryogenic classical and quantum computing systems, there is a need for transferring massive amounts of information from cryogenic circuitry to room temperature, while avoiding significant hardware complexity and heat load. This becomes particularly important as the systems scale up, considering the limited physical space and cooling power available in cryogenic systems. The realization of photonic integrated circuits operating at low temperatures and the use of optical fibers to connect different temperature stages can successfully overcome those limitations, thus enabling scalable, low-cost, and power-efficient optical interconnections for large data transfer rates.
  Biography: Paolo Pintus received a Ph.D. with honors in innovative technologies of information, communication technologies, and robotics from the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, Italy in 2012. From 2012 to 2016, he was a Research Fellow with Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna in Pisa, Italy. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Physics of the University of Cagliari, Italy and a Project Scientist with the University of California Santa Barbara, USA. He has filed 7 international patents and he is the author and coauthor of more than 100 scientific journals and conference papers. His research interests include integrated optics, silicon photonics, and computational electromagnetics. Dr. Pintus is a Senior Member of the IEEE Photonic Society and a member of the Italian Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

  Speaker 13: Bernard Lee, Senko Advanced Components, Malaysia
  Title: Innovations in Optical Interconnect for High Performance Data Center Systems
  Abstract: Many of the emerging technologies, which involve high speed communications, digitalization of social data, intelligent data processing and network security became the focus of tech companies and also governments around the world in the past 2 years, ever since the world plunged into a necessary isolation imposed on global populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Advancement in these technologies has inevitably accelerated the adoption of high speed optics. The proliferation of 200 Gbps and 400 Gbps optics by cloud providers, which was initially scheduled for adoption by late 2022 or early 2023 is already being deployed today. The development of 800 Gb/s and 1.6 Tb/s technologies also exceeds the original projections with the first co-packaged optical modules anticipated in 2023. Furthermore, advances in quantum computing and quantum communication have been buoyed by huge investments and a nascent technology race between the US, China and Europe, creating a demand for new “quantum grade” optical components such as Quantum PICs and Quantum grade interconnects to support quantum networks and connectivity in order to enable the application of quantum photonic integrated circuits. In this talk, we would like to report on the latest advances in optical interconnect required to enable the proliferation of High Performance Data Centre networks, co-packaged optics, quantum networks and eventually quantum photonic integrated circuits. We shall also touch on the potentially challenging operational environment these interconnects would need to operate in.
  Biography: Bernard is currently the Director of Technology & Innovation at SENKO Advanced Components. He started his career in optical communications when he was a Senior Research Office for the European Union IST project known as DAVID in 2000. In 2003, he joined Telekom Malaysia R&D where he has held various technical and management positions there including the Head of Photonic Network Research and also Head of Innovation and Communications. Bernard then joined the parent company, Telekom Malaysia (TM) in 2010 as the Assistant General Manager at the Group Business Strategy Division. Bernard is also an Expert at the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), a Chartered Engineer (CEng) accredited by the Engineering Council of UK, a Professional Engineer (PEng) registered with the Board of Engineers Malaysia and also a BICSI Registered Communications Distribution Designer (RCDD).

  Speaker 14: Miltiadis Moralis-Pegios, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
  Title: Silicon Photonics for Data Center interconnects and security applications
  Abstract: The high-density and high-efficiency requirements of next-generation chip-to-chip and chiplet-to-chiplet communications, have brought into the spotlight silicon photonics (SiPho) based interconnection systems as a powerful platform capable of transferring the proven low-energy and footprint credentials of optical transceivers in on-board systems. In this context, we review our work on reliable and thermally stable SiPho micro ring-resonator (MRR) transceivers for optical multi-socket-board (MSB) connectivity, while also extending the use of SiPho into the Data Center (DC) segment by demonstrating their use in DC security applications, presenting a SiPho neuromorphic engine that can reliably perform reconnaissance of Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks.
  Biography: Dr. Miltiadis Moralis-Pegios received his PhD in 2019 in “Silicon-based Photonic Integrated Circuits and High-Capacity Switching Systems for DataCenters Interconnects” and since then is working as a senior researcher in the Photonic Systems and Networks group in Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. His research interests include silicon photonic interconnects for datacenter and high-performance computing system and integrated neuromorphic photonics. In these fields, he has authored and co-authored more than 50 publications in prestigious journals and top-of-line conferences.

  Speaker 15: Gabrie Hoogland, SABIC, Netherlands
  Title: Novel Thermoplastic resins for Optical Interconnects
  Abstract: The optics in pluggable optical transceivers, known as optical sub assemblies (OSA), are currently often made out of ULTEM™ resin. This thermoplastic polyetherimide resin acts as lens and optics housing, micro molded in 1 part. With the expected increase of data flow, the micro optics have to be co-packaged close to the ASIC, which creates a need for novel thermoplastic polyimides with higher Glass Transition temperatures, like EXTEM™ resin. For the Co-packaged Optics, the transceiver modules are exposed to high temperatures during their placement on printed circuit boards by a solder re-flow process or a solder bath. Especially so in the lead free solder processes, where the lenses are required to retain their shape at peak temperatures of 260° C, used for the Surface Mounting process. In this talk examples of single complex micro-molded connectors made from EXTEM™ resin will be shown with incorporated high precision optical and mechanical features to provide an advanced packaging solution for PICs. Furthermore, optical characterization data and device performance supporting the choice of connectorized freeform optics for on-board high-bandwidth data communication will be discussed.
  Biography: Gabrie Hoogland leads the product strategy development and execution for ULTEM™ and EXTEM™ Resins in SABIC Specialties Business. His role is to develop new solutions for fiber optic components like optical lenses and interconnects with a special focus on Polyether Imide Polymers. A key focus for Gabrie is to develop resins that withstand high heat assembly processes like Reflow Soldering and show very good dimensional stability during the life cycle of the fiber optic component. Since joining SABIC in 1991 Gabrie has worked across multiple functional disciplines in Technology & Innovation and Product Management. Gabrie studied polymer chemistry and graduated from the Free University at Amsterdam.

  Speaker 16: Conor O'Keeffe, Intel, Ireland
  Title: Intel’s participation in DARPA CHIPS, PIPES and Space-BACN programs - scaling new benchmarks in photonic performance and integration
  Abstract: Intel is participating in a number of DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) programs related to photonic integration. DARPA CHIPS (Common Heterogeneous Integration and IP Reuse Strategies) initiated a framework of interoperable chiplets that can be assembled to form system-in-package. One of the key outcomes in this program is the promotion of the AIB (Advanced Interface Bus) interface for high bandwidth, low latency, low energy interfaces suitable for heterogeneously integrating chiplets. DARPA PIPES (Photonics in the Package for Extreme Scalability) leverages the DARPA CHIPS approach by using AIB in integrating photonic chiplets with compute functions. Intel’s initiative in PIPES has demonstrated 8Tbs interface bandwidth from an FPGA package. Intel’s initiative on the DARPA Space-BACN (Space-Based Adaptive Communications Node) program sees the development of a low-power, reconfigurable, coherent, free-space optics modem for inter-satellite links. This leverages the work on CHIPS and PIPES.
  Biography: Conor O’Keeffe is a Principal Engineer in Intel’s Programable Solutions Group CTO team. Conor plays a key role in a number of DARPA programs such as CHIPS, and Space-BACN. Prior to joining Intel Programmable Solutions Group in September 2017, he has held a number of roles including, Intel SoC Architect, founding CTO of wireless company “Socowave", and cellular chipset architect at Freescale/Motorola and RFIC designer. His expertise spans photonics, RF, wireless, test, SoC, wireline technologies, RAN, DSP and mixed signal Analog/RFIC design. Conor is an inventor on 37 granted patent families. Conor is a graduate of Munster Technological University and University of South Wales. Conor is based in Cork, Ireland.

  Speaker 17: Stephane Lessard, Ericsson, Italy
  Title: CPO for Radio Systems
  Abstract: For many years now, CPO has been in the works as a natural evolution complementing and eventually replacing pluggables in high capacity and large Radix switches for exascale datacenters. But other areas and systems have been under pressure for density, bandwidth and power like Radio Access Networks and CPO have been under scrutiny as a way to evolve mobile RAN systems. This talk will present some of our findings in terms of requirements, challenges and benefits of CPO in mobile RAN systems but also stimulate the discussion by trying to pinpoint key roadmap landmarks for actual consideration of CPO in field deployments, competing the established realm of pluggables.
  Biography: Stéphane Lessard received the M.Sc. degree in theoretical physics and holds numerous patents in the field of photonic systems. He is a Senior Specialist in photonics system architecture at Ericsson Research, where he leads short-reach photonics research and projects as well as joint academic and industry collaborations.

  Speaker 18: Moritz Seyfried, ficonTEC, Germany
  Title: Automated assembly solutions as key for mass manufacturing of high-speed photonic transceivers
  Abstract: With the ever increasing demand for photonic transceivers as well as the fact that most of the product costs lies in the assembly, testing and packaging, highly automated assembly solutions are the only way to keep the product costs at a viable level. Within this presentation we will provide an overview about the concepts chosen in the Masstart project to reduce the assembly costs as well as present a first commercial solution in which some of the concepts have been applied successfully in an industrial production line.
  Biography: Moritz holds a Master’s degree from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK, a Diploma degree from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany, as well as a PhD from Bremen University, Germany – all in the field of semiconductor optics. After his academic career he joined ficonTEC Service GmbH in 2012 and was mainly involved in setting up the R&D department, which he is manging since 2014. In this role, he is responsible for the development of the next generation of assembly tools and techniques as well as the proof of concept in customer studies.

  Speaker 19: Tomoyuki Akahoshi, Kyocera, Japan
  Title: Near Package Optics (NPO) module for PCIe Gen 5 interconnect
  Abstract: In this talk, we will introduce the optical module using silicon photonics devices for PCIe gen5 interconnect. This module has 32 Gbps x 16 lanes of signal transmission and can be worked in vicinity of the processor package (ex. FPGA, CPU, etc.). Through the evaluation of our prototype module, we achieved error-free transmission in 1310nm multi-mode and confirmed Telcordia compliant reliability tests.
  Biography: Tomoyuki Akahoshi works for KYOCERA Corporation from 2019. He has over 15 years of experience in developing high-speed signal transmission technology. Currently, he is a manager in R&D division and has been developing optical modules using silicon photonics devices.

  Speaker 20: Pavlos Maniotis, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, USA
  Title: Toward next-generation data center and HPC networks with co-packaged optics
  Abstract: The increased escape bandwidth offered by co-packaged optics can enable switches with speeds of 51.2 Tb/s and beyond. From a network architecture perspective, there are two key advantages: (a) the implementation of large-scale topologies with significantly higher bisection bandwidth, and (b) the substantial reduction of the required number of switches, which can mitigate the administrative/management overhead. From a network operation perspective, both improved network locality and faster operation can be achieved since the higher-radix switches can reduce the impact of network contention; applications can be placed under fewer leaf switches, which reduces the number of packets that cross the spine switches in a typical leaf-spine topology. This presentation provides a brief overview of the recent activities realized within the framework of the MOTION research project (Multi-wave¬length Optical Transceivers Integrated On Node), and discusses on the performance improvements that can be achieved by using co-packaged optics in next-generation data center and high-performance computing networks. The proposed concepts are evaluated via discrete-event simulations: first, virtual-machine traces are used to evaluate the network locality properties of the system, and, secondly, the performance improvements are quantified by means of network simulations.
  Biography: Pavlos Maniotis works as a Research Staff Member at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, NY, USA. His research interests include network/system modeling and simulation, optical interconnect technologies, and resource optimization in cloud data centers and high-performance computers. In 2017, he completed his Ph.D. on Computing Architectures exploiting Optical Interconnect and Optical Memory Technologies at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece. He was awarded the IEEE Photonics Society Graduate Student Fellowship for his thesis, which is annually awarded to 10 outstanding graduate students world-wide pursuing graduate education within the society's field of interest.

  Speaker 21: Marian Bogdan Sirbu, Fraunhofer IZM, Germany
  Title: Faster, higher, stronger: co-packaged optics
  Abstract: Everywhere in the world, the bandwidth of Ethernet networks keeps growing. This extremely rapid growth is powered by the great progress made in many areas involved, such as video, AI, HPC, and 5G. The operators of data centres and research organizations are now looking for solutions with significantly better power efficiency and performance rolled into one. They are placing their hopes into novel concepts to keep up with new technological needs and standards. One of the initiatives pursued by them is co-packaged optics, a promising technology that has lots of advantages over optical transceivers, including better thermal management, power consumption, bandwidth, and many more.
  Biography: Marian Bogdan Sirbu received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Technical University of Berlin, his degree in telecommunications engineering from the Politecnica Univerity of Madrid. He is a Research Scientist with the Photonics and Plasmonics Systems group at Fraunhofer IZM, where he is engaged in research activities on optical interconnects technologies for datacenter applications, optical printed circuit boards and 3D heterogeneous integration. He was and is active in the EU‐funded projects PhoxTroT, L3Matrix, MASSTART, 5G-PHOS, iPHOS and Ramplas.

  Speaker 22: Keren Bergman, Columbia University, USA
  Title: Photonic connectivity for accelerating AI computing
  Abstract: High performance data centers are increasingly bottlenecked by the energy and communications costs of interconnection networks. Our recent work has shown how integrated silicon photonics with comb-driven dense wavelength-division multiplexing can scale to realize Pb/s chip escape bandwidths with sub-picojoule/bit energy consumption. We use this emerging interconnect technology to introduce the concept of embedded photonics for deeply disaggregated architectures. Beyond alleviating the bandwidth/energy bottlenecks, the new architectural approach enables flexible connectivity tailored to accelerate distributed ML applications.
  Biography: Keren Bergman is the Charles Batchelor Professor of Electrical Engineering at Columbia University where she also serves as the Faculty Director of the Columbia Nano Initiative. Prof. Bergman received the B.S. from Bucknell University in 1988, and the M.S. in 1991 and Ph.D. in 1994 from M.I.T. all in Electrical Engineering. At Columbia, she leads the Lightwave Research Laboratory encompassing multiple cross-disciplinary programs at the intersection of computing and photonics. Prof. Bergman is the recipient of the 2016 IEEE Photonics Engineering Achievement Award and is a Fellow of Optica and IEEE.

  Speaker 23: Jose Capmany, iPRONICS, Spain
  Title: Programmable integrated photonics for Edge and Cloud data centers: Application and functionality scenarios
  Abstract: Programmable photonics is an emerging paradigm in integrated optics that aims to provide reconfigurable and scalable solutions where a common hardware is driven by software to implement particular applications, much in a similar way as Field Programmable Grate Arrays, Microprocessors and DSPs operate in electronics. In photonics however no memory is available and processing is mainly analog. One of the most exciting applications of programmable photonics is in the field of data centers where it can provide almost boundless broadband connectivity for data processing and resource pooling. This talk will explore the potentials of this technology.
  Biography: José Capmany is Full professor at Universitat Politècnica de Valencia and co-founder of iPronics and VLC Photonics. He holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering and a PhD in Quantum Communications. With over 500 publications in the fields of Microwave and programmable Photonics he received the IEEE Photonics Society Engineering Achievement Award in 2021, the Spanish National research Award in Engineering in 2020 and the King James I Award (highest scientific distinction in spain) in 2012. He is an ERC and EIC awardee and IEEE and Optica Fellow.

  Speaker 24: Calum Hill, Vector Photonics, UK
  Title: Photonic Crystal Surface Emitting Lasers (PCSELs) at multiple wavelengths for high bandwidth data communications
  Abstract: Hyperscale datacenter operators are driving optical technology development, as services and a wide variety of applications transition out of personal and corporate environments into the cloud. As speeds transition to rates > 400Gbs in a mesh network architecture this requires a significant increase in optical interconnects all the way to the server. Pluggable optics using conventional technology are currently the defacto interconnect, however as bandwidth requirements increase significant challenges in power consumption, latency, physical size and cost need to be resolved. Moving towards co-packaged optics where some or all the optical functionality is integrated onto silicon next to the ASIC is desirable to improve the overall system performance, reduce the system energy consumption and reduce cost. We report on the development of photonic crystal surface emitting lasers (PCSELs) that are suitable for CWDM operation in the O-band as a high-power seed laser for multiple data channels integrated into silicon photonics. PCSELs use a photonic crystal to facilitate resonance in the plane of the wafer while simultaneously allowing for surface emission. This unique geometry offers distinct advantages in terms of power scaling and beam divergence compared to conventional solutions. Furthermore, the structure of a PCSEL is agnostic to the base epitaxy used and we show that PCSELs can be made at multiple different wavelengths to meet different communication needs.
  Biography: Dr. Calum Hill is Principal Development Engineer, at Vector Photonics, based in Glasgow, Scotland. He is a leader in the technical team who are commercialising the revolutionary, PCSEL-based, all-semiconductor laser technology. Calum has an MPhys in Physics from the University of St Andrews and an Engineering Doctorate (EngD) from the Centre for Doctoral Training in Applied Photonics at Heriot-Watt University. It was there that he developed environmentally stable, near-infrared, mode-locked fibre lasers for Radar and Lidar applications. Calum was a UK Finalist in the Three Minute Thesis competition; Scottish Finalist in Famelab; and was Space School ambassador for Careers Scotland, traveling to NASA to represent young, gifted and talented Scottish engineers. When not at work Calum likes to help out with local charities, most recently ‘Simon Community Scotland’, a homelessness charity in Glasgow. He also enjoys long walks with his excitable Dalmation, Poppy, and takes every opportunity to play a game of squash or badminton.

  Speaker 26: Stefan Abel, Lumiphase, Switzerland
  Title: A Pockels- boost for PICs – How communication chips will reach new performance levels
  Abstract: Controlling light with electrical signals is a critical function in photonic integrated circuits for optical communication, sensors, and switches. Lumiphase builds photonic chips based on a unique Pockels technology. Our chips serve as a new solution to perform electro-optical modulation with benefits in cost, speed, transparency, power-consumption, and footprint compared to standard silicon solutions.
  Biography: Dr. Stefan Abel is Co-founder and Co-CEO of Lumiphase AG and driving the development and commercialization of Lumiphase’s innovative Pockels switching technology. Before starting Lumiphase, Stefan spent more than 10 years at IBM where he invented new optical phase shifters based on ultra-efficient electro-optical materials for applications in optical communication, novel photonic computing, and sensing with light.

  Speaker 27: Angelina Totović, Celestial AI, USA & Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
  Title: Unrolling the new AI era – photon by photon
  Abstract: The staggering increase in complexity of ML models, hitting the threshold of one trillion parameters just recently, pushes the existing, electronics-based hardware technology to its limits. To allow for further growth at even faster pace, the underlying hardware fabric needs to be fundamentally rethought, with the emphasis of low latency, high data throughput, low power consumption and minimum data reformatting. We present our vision on how linear optics can accommodate all these demands – and many more – unlocking the true potential of AI. Rather than choosing between coherent and WDM approaches, we harness both to develop a programmable photonic crossbar which can tackle various matmul operations, representing tensors, matrices, and vectors with one-to-one mapping and supporting multi-10G processing. The crossbar can be easily reconfigured to present one, or even multiple layers at a time, with the efficiency reaching its maximum for ubiquitous convolutional and fully-connected layers. The processor is transparent to the modulation technology, retaining the fidelity of 100% even with lossy optical components.
  Biography: Angelina Totovic received a PhD degree in photonics and nanoelectronics from University of Belgrade, in 2018. For the past 10 years, she has been working in various levels of abstraction in photonics – from active/passive device design to system-level engineering. While at WinPhos Research Group of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2018-2022), she developed an interest in neuromorphic photonics and linear optics. Currently, she is working as a Photonics Simulation Engineer at Celestial AI, an ML accelerator company enabling next-generation HPC solutions using light for data movement.

• Sponsored by

  H2020-MASSTART Project