Low-Power Optical Input/Output Chiplet for Ethernet Switches (TeraPHYe)

A network switch system-in-package, comprising:

• a carrier substrate;
• a network switch chip disposed on the carrier substrate;
• and
• a plurality of photonic input/output modules disposed on the carrier substrate, each of the plurality of photonic input/output modules including:
• a module substrate, and
• a plurality of photonic chip pods disposed on the module substrate, each photonic chip pod of the plurality of photonic chip pods including:
• a pod substrate,
• a photonic input/output chiplet attached to the pod substrate, the photonic input/output chiplet including a parallel electrical interface, a photonic interface, and a plurality of optical macros implemented between the photonic interface and the parallel electrical interface, and
• a gearbox chiplet attached the pod substrate in electrical connection with the parallel electrical interface of the photonic input/output chiplet and in electrical connection with a serial electrical interface of the network switch chip, the gearbox chiplet configured to provide conversion between the parallel electrical interface of the photonic input/output chiplet and the serial electrical interface of the network switch chip.

A network switch system-in-package, comprising:

• a carrier substrate;
• a network switch chip disposed on the carrier substrate;
• and
• a plurality of photonic input/output chiplets attached to the carrier substrate, each of the plurality of photonic input/output chiplets including an electrical interface electrically connected for bi-directional data communication with the network switch chip, a photonic interface, and a plurality of optical macros implemented between the photonic interface and the electrical interface.