Real-Time Reconfiguration of Free-Space Optical Receivers by Means of Fully Integrated CMOS Controller
摘要
Our work presents a fully integrated CMOS architecture that performs real-time reconfiguration of free-space optical receivers built in a CMOS-compatible Silicon Photonics platform. The chip comprises 8 identical and independent channels, dissipating \(\approx \) 10 mW each, and is used to dynamically drive the thermal actuators setting the working point of the photonic integrated circuit. By connecting a pair of ASICs to the photonic chip, we successfully controlled a binary-tree mesh consisting of 15 Mach-Zehnder Interferometers. When put to the test in a laboratory setup simulating real-world operation, our solution proved successful in compensating for atmospheric turbulence up to \(\approx \) 300 Hz. This architecture thus stands as a scalable solution for establishing reliable free-space optical links between photonic processors of growing complexity.