India, Feb. 23 -- Researchers from CEA-List and CEA-Leti unveiled at ISSCC the first electro-optical router with dynamic, frame-level optical routing integrated with CMOS control logic, marking a major step toward practical optical networking inside advanced chiplet-based packages.

Their paper, "A 3.19pJ/bit Electro-Optical Router with 18ns Setup Frame-Level Routing and 1-6 Wavelength Flexible Link Capacity for Photonic Interposers", demonstrates an electro-optical router implemented in 28 nm CMOS on a photonic interposer, capable of establishing optical paths in 18 nanoseconds. It dynamically selects one-to-six wavelengths per link, and achieves an energy efficiency of 3.19 pJ/bit with an active area of just 0.007 mm² per link.

Mo...