CompoundTek announces R&D collaboration for SiPh laser source
Three-year collaboration with NTU Singapore to address need for small, high yield, low cost tuneable lasers for silicon photonics
CompoundTek Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based foundry services provider in emerging Silicon Photonics (SiPh) solutions, is working with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore on a three-year joint R&D collaboration for 'O, C, L-band Silicon Photonics tuneable Lasers for Communications and Other Emerging Applications'.
One of the primary objectives is to develop a high-performance tuneable laser that has a compact footprint and is scalable, high-yield and suited for low-cost manufacturing. By replacing the commonly used array of single wavelength lasers with a single wavelength tuneable laser, this much-simplified design architecture reduces existing complexities of optical Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) systems, and will additionally lower wavelength contention and inventory costs for commercial products.
The SiPh platform today offers scalability, cost-effectiveness and manufacturability of the matured Si CMOS process. However, one of the key disadvantages of SiPh is the non-availability of highly-efficient silicon laser integrated with SiPh circuits. Hybrid SiPh, integrating SiPh devices with III-V compound semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA), offers the best of both worlds – enabling low propagation loss and high integration densities while providing efficient optical gain and flexibility for spectral engineering. This integration is one of the key research areas at NTU’s The Photonics Institute.
(Pictured above are KS Ang (left), COO of CompoundTek and Professor Wang (right), NTU pictured together with a prototype of the packaged tuneable laser.)
