Enabling Terabit capacity optical interconnects requires a paradigm shift in the packaging approach. The electrical interconnect distance between the optical engine and the digital switching chip must be minimized and signal conditioning chips and unwanted components that are required and inevitably lead to increased power consumption and reduced signal integrity, should be removed. It also requires the right combination of photonic and electronic technology to be integrated in order to deliver high performance, low-cost and energy efficient optical engines.

POETICS is a H2020 Research and Innovation project funded by the European Union aiming to bring the optical interconnect technology with all performance, functionality and cost credentials and allow the Datacenter (DC) networks to scale and the 5G wired infrastructures to grow.