OpenLIght, Tower show 400G photonic chip
Photonic chip designer OpenLight Photonics has shown a 400G/lane modulator built on the commercially available, integrated silicon photonics platform at Tower Semiconductor
The PH18DA process allows the design to exceed a 3.5dB extinction ratio using the industry-standard PAM-4 modulation format and at a drive voltage of 0.6 volts peak-to-peak. The 400G demonstration is built using OpenLight’s IP on Tower’s existing silicon photonics platform already supporting customers at 100G and 200G/lane.
The move to 400G/lane optical communication architectures is being driven by the need for high-speed data transfer in cloud computing, AI and ML applications, and this device is a drop in replacement for the existing 200G/lane modulators. This comes as STMicroelectronics has launched its own silicon photonics process technology.
Operating at 400G per lane across all four CWDM (Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing) wavelengths, this design enables a commercially viable path for both DR8 and FR4 next-generation 3.2Tb solutions and beyond.
Pure silicon-based modulators are unable to support bit rates of 400G, so the design combines III-V materials on a silicon photonics substrate. This heterogeneous device has smaller size, higher bandwidth and lower drive voltage and is built on a commercial silicon photonics platform at Tower that is manufacturable in volume.
The 400G modulators can also be combined with lasers and optical amplifiers on a single, compact, cost- and power-efficient photonic integrated circuit (PIC).
“Our partnership with Tower represents a critical step in the integration of advanced silicon photonics into the datacom landscape. The success of this demonstration sets the stage for groundbreaking advancements in high-speed networking,” said Dr. Adam Carter, CEO of OpenLight.
“Using our existing 200G heterogeneous modulator design, we have now future-proofed customers’ PASIC designs from 100G to 200G to 400G per lane, minimizing design, layout and time to market, as this 400G modulator is a drop-in replacement for existing 200G modulator PASIC designs. The other added benefit of using the same design is the proven high-reliability performance and the ability to use flip chip processes when packaging into an integrated optical sub-assembly.”
“We’re pleased to collaborate with OpenLight, leveraging their cutting-edge silicon photonics technology to create a cost-effective approach to support 400G/lane. This is an extension of our PH18DA platform currently supporting customers at 100G and 200G/lane and now providing a robust solution for 400G/lane that is immediately ready for customer prototyping,” said said Russell Ellwanger, CEO of Tower Semiconductor.
“This is a significant step toward providing scalable, reliable, high-performance and manufacturable solutions for the next generation of optical communication technology. This collaboration allows OpenLight’s heterogeneous integration technology to provide a secure path to higher speeds without the need for complex and expensive integration alternatives like Thin Film Lithium Niobate (TFLN), BTO or polymers.”
www.openlightphotonics.com
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