Thermal control of an optical component

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12564047-B2
Application number	US-202318123170-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 17, 2023
Priority date	Oct 28, 2022
Publication date	Feb 24, 2026
Grant date	Feb 24, 2026

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to thermal control systems, photonic memory fabrics, and electro-absorption modulators (EAMs). For example, the thermal control systems efficiently move data in a memory fabric based on utilizing and controlling thermally controlling optical components. As another example, the EAMs are instances of optical modulators used to efficiently move data within digital circuits while maintaining thermally-stable optical modulation across a wide temperature range.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A thermal control system comprising:
a semiconductor having an optical layer stacked with an electrical layer, the semiconductor partitioned into an electrical-only region and an optoelectrical region; one or more nodes in the optoelectrical region, each of the one or more nodes residing in the optical layer and the electrical layer, a first portion of each of the one or more nodes residing in the optical layer and having at least one optical modulator and one or more heat-producing elements residing in the electrical layer and radiating heat toward the optical layer; a temperature sensing region in a second portion of each of the one or more nodes, the temperature sensing region having a temperature sensor therein for sending a thermal signal to the electrical-only region, the thermal signal associated with a current temperature of the at least one optical modulator; and a controller in the electrical-only region having an electrical interconnect to each of the one or more nodes for receiving the thermal signal from the temperature sensor and for sending a new voltage signal to the optoelectrical region based on the thermal signal.

2 . The thermal control system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one optical modulator is selected from a group consisting of an electro-absorption modulator (EAM) and a quantum confined stark effect (QCSE) electro-absorptive modulator.

3 . The thermal control system of claim 1 , wherein the new voltage signal is a negative DC bias voltage that is associated with a value of the thermal signal.

4 . The thermal control system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one optical modulator has an anode and a cathode and wherein the controller sends an AC swing signal to the cathode and the new voltage signal to the anode.

5 . The thermal control system of claim 1 , further comprising a table including a plurality of voltage values associated with a plurality of temperatures, wherein the controller selects a voltage value for the new voltage signal using the table and the current temperature.

6 . The thermal control system of claim 1 , further comprising a function for computing the new voltage signal using a product of the current temperature and an activation function.

7 . The thermal control system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more heat-producing elements are selected from a group consisting of central processing units (CPUs), graphics processing units (GPUs), memory units, message routers, tensor engines, digital neural networks, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and processing elements.

8 . A system-in-package (SIP) comprising:
a photonic integrated circuit (PIC); an electronic integrated circuit (EIC) having an electrical connection with the PIC; a node having a first portion of the node residing in the EIC and a second portion of the node residing in the PIC; a plurality of heat-producing elements in the first portion of the node that radiates heat toward the second portion of the node, thereby causing a thermal change in the second portion of the node; a plurality of optical modulators in the second portion of the node; and a temperature sensing region in the second portion of the node for sending a current temperature to a controller, wherein the controller sends a first signal to each of the plurality of optical modulators based on the current temperature.

9 . The SIP of claim 8 , wherein the first signal is a DC bias voltage signal.

10 . The SIP of claim 8 , wherein each of the plurality of optical modulators includes a cathode and an anode, and wherein the first signal is sent to the anode of each of the plurality of optical modulators.

11 . The SIP of claim 10 , wherein the controller is further configured to send a second signal to the cathode of each of the plurality of optical modulators, the second signal comprising an AC swing signal.

12 . The SIP of claim 10 , wherein the controller sends an AC swing signal to the cathode of the plurality of optical modulators.

13 . A method for controlling a thermal variable associated with a plurality of optical components, comprising:
applying a first signal to a cathode of each of the plurality of optical components; applying a second signal to an anode of each of the plurality of optical components; sensing a temperature in a region associated with the plurality of optical components; receiving a current temperature associated with the region; determining when to initiate a thermal control over the plurality of optical components using the current temperature; and wherein when a first one of the plurality of optical components is an inter-chip modulator, obtaining a first voltage and sending the first voltage to the anode of the inter-chip modulator; wherein when a second one of the plurality of optical components is an intra-chip modulator, obtaining a second voltage and sending the second voltage to the anode of the intra-chip modulator, the second voltage has a different value than the first voltage.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein determining when to initiate the thermal control over the plurality of optical components is performed using a control circuit.

15 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the second signal is a DC bias voltage signal.

16 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the first signal comprises an AC swing signal.

17 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the plurality of optical components is selected from a group consisting of electro-absorption modulators (EAM) and quantum confined stark effect (QCSE) electro-absorptive modulators.

18 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising a table including a plurality of voltage values associated with a plurality of temperatures, wherein determining when to initiate the thermal control over the plurality of optical components further comprises accessing the table.

19 . The method of claim 13 , wherein sending the first voltage and the second voltage comprise selecting one or more rows in a table and obtaining a value from one or more columns associated with the one or more rows.

20 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising one or more functions, wherein sending the first voltage to the anode of the inter-chip modulator and sending the second voltage to the anode of the inter-chip modulator comprise calculating the first voltage and the second voltage by multiplying the current temperature with an activation function.

Assignees

• Celestial Ai Inc

Inventors

• Sahni Subal

Classifications

• H10W90/00

  Package configurations · CPC title

• G02F1/0157 Primary

  using electro-absorption effects, e.g. Franz-Keldysh [FK] effect or quantum confined stark effect [QCSE] · CPC title

• H10W40/00 Primary

  Arrangements for thermal protection or thermal control (integrated devices comprising arrangements for thermal protection H10D89/60) · CPC title

• H01L25/167

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H01L23/34 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic