ANTONY SAVVAS SILICONPHOTONICS
and the AIM Photonics TAP facility in Rochester, NY - the world’s first 300mm open access PIC Test, Assembly and Packaging (TAP) facility. The project will take place within RIT’s Future Photon Initiative (FPI) and Centre for Human-Aware AI (CHAI). Meanwhile, the Asia-Pacific market has witnessed large investments to improve methods for large-scale manufacturing of silicon photonic components and circuits. INTEGRATION In Europe, Holland’s LioniX International (recently acquired by South Korea’s Magic Micro) and Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI), Berlin, are collaborating on the development of PICs and sharing and integrating their existing platform technology to serve various market segments. The PIC platform of LioniX International is based on stoichiometric silicon nitride and is branded under the name TriPleX. The platform is complementary to the indium phosphide platform of HHI as it is ultra low loss (from 405 to 2350 nm) and has the ability to create spot size converters, enabling an optimised conversion between the mode profiles in, for example, HHI’s InP chips, as well as many types of fibre. “Our unique hybrid integration capabilities support our customers that demand fully assembled photonic integrated circuit modules”, said Hans van den Vlekkert, CEO of LioniX. “With HHI we have found a supplier that supports our vertical integrated approach to our photonic IC module manufacturing.” The PIC platform of HHI offers a wide range of optical functionalities such as light sources, detection, amplification and phase control in the wavelength region from 1200nm up to 1650nm. COMMERCIAL Furthering the commercial roll-out of PIC technology, Macom Technology Solutions recently introduced a complete chipset for 200G and 400G CWDM
optical module providers servicing cloud data centre applications. The offering enables 200G modules at under 4.5W and 400G modules at under 9W total power consumption - delivering power efficiency with a fully analogue architecture that ensures low latency. Macom says its products, equipped with PICs, provide a lower cost option compared to DSP-based offerings. Gary Shah, vice president, Macom high-performance analogue business line, said: “We are committed to leading the evolution of data centre interconnects from 100G to 200G and 400G, as evidenced by our unique ability to deliver a complete 200G chipset and TOSA/ROSA sub-assembly solution with market leading performance and power efficiency.” He said: “With this solution, optical module providers are expected to benefit from seamless component interoperability and a unified support team, reducing design complexity and costs while accelerating their time to market.” Production availability is targeted for “early 2019”. Customers can select from component-level solutions or a TOSA/ROSA sub-assembly-level solution. ECOC Oclaro demonstrated its CFP2-DCO (digital coherent optics) module at the recent ECOC conference in Rome, Italy. Oclaro’s CFP2-DCO is based on its InP photonic integrated circuit (PIC) technology for tunable lasers, modulators and receivers, and builds upon the company’s efforts in CFP2- ACO modules. Interoperability between Oclaro’s CFP2-DCO and Acacia’s AC200 CFP2-DCO had already been successfully demonstrated at both 100Gbps and 200Gbps data rates through joint testing in Oclaro’s labs. “Customers are looking for a plug- and-play digital solution leveraging the recognised performance of Oclaro’s InP PICs,” said Beck Mason, president of the Integrated Photonics Business at Oclaro.
“By delivering our first CFP2-DCO, based on Acacia’s Meru DSP, Oclaro is expanding its addressable market while leveraging the proven value-add of its ACO platform. “Our demonstrated technology represents a significant milestone in the industry because it highlights the availability of two fully interoperable supply sources for these critical components, which will help encourage broader adoption by network operators.” At the heart of Oclaro’s CFP2-DCO is its 43Gbaud coherent transmitter receiver optical sub-assembly (TROSA) The TROSA uses InP PIC technology from Oclaro’s CFP2-ACO to achieve leading optical performance in a small form factor. Also at ECOC, Intel announced details on the expansion of its portfolio of 100G silicon photonics transceivers beyond the data centre and into the network edge. Intel unveiled details on new silicon photonics products that are optimised to support large volumes of data around 5G and IoT applications. Hong Hou, vice president and general manager of Intel’s Silicon Photonics Product Division, said: “Our hyperscale cloud customers are currently using Intel’s 100G silicon photonics transceivers to deliver high- performance data centre infrastructure at scale. By extending this technology outside the data centre and into 5G infrastructure at the edge of the network, we can provide the same benefits to communications service providers, while supporting 5G fronthaul bandwidth needs.” The transceivers are designed to meet the harsh outdoor conditions of cellular towers with the capability to support optical transport to the nearest baseband unit or central office (up to 10 km away). Intel says its integrated “laser into silicon” approach makes its silicon photonics transceivers suitable for mass production and for deployment as 5G infrastructure ramps. Production for the new silicon photonics wireless modules is scheduled to start in the the first quarter of 2019. All these developments demonstrate that the PIC landscape is rapidly developing to serve the key segments of the data and communications infrastructure industries. Wide-scale adoption of photonic integrated circuits is expected in various industries
Michael Liehr, CEO, AIM Photonics
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| ISSUE 15 | Q4 2018
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