Work-in-Progress: Mitigating Inter-Channel Crosstalk Non-Uniformity in Microring Filter Arrays of Photonic NoCs

Photonic networks-on-chip (PNoCs) employ photonic links with dense-wavelength-division-multiplexing (DWDM) of channels for parallel signal traversal, along with arrayed microring resonator (MR) filters for parallel signal reception, to enable high-bandwidth on-chip data transfers. Unfortunately, DWDM induces nonuniform inter-channel crosstalk in an MR filter array, which degrades the communication reliability in the link. Overcoming this reliability degradation requires non-uniformly distributed signal power across the utilized data-channels in the link. This increases the total laser power consumption of the link, compared to the ideal case where the crosstalk distribution in the MR filter array is uniform. This paper presents a novel design of MR filter array with minimized crosstalk non-uniformity, which can achieve total optical laser power savings of up to 34% of the link power budget.