Sivers: Strategy shifts to targets AI data centres

Supported by a $30 million revamp of its Glasgow fab, Sivers switches to hybrid production for the manufacture of its InP lasers for AI data centres

BY RICHARD STEVENSON, EDITOR, CS MAGAZINE

What happens when demand outstrips supply? Often this leads to panic buying, accompanied by exploitative hikes in retail prices. And during this period of frantic turmoil, hearts overrule heads, leading to impulsive decisions, regretted in hindsight.

But this state of affairs is not happening during the ramp in construction of AI data centres. While supply is dwarfing demand for a key product, the InP laser – it is deployed in pluggable transceivers, ensuring communication within processors and memory systems – companies buying these infra-red emitters are not trying to grab every opportunity. In fact, they are very particular when evaluating potential suppliers.

There is good reason to quiz producers of InP lasers on their supply chain resilience, given the current state of geo-politics, where rulings without warning can have a devasting consequence. Against this alarming backdrop, are supply chains sufficiently robust to ensure that orders for these lasers will be met, regardless of every conceivable disruption?

Another concern for customers considering their laser suppliers is associated with their capacity to ramp volume. Given that demand for these emitters will rocket over the coming years, can production keep pace?

Purchasers of InP lasers will also have requirements related to the reliability of this device, and its performance. Historically, the InP lasers providing fibre-based links for data centres have output powers of up to 10 mW. Now, though, five-to-ten times this figure is required – and there’s interest in sources delivering hundreds of milliwatts. Higher powers have much appeal. They simplify design, by splitting the output from a single source over multiple fibres.

Technicians at Sivers’ Glasgow facility conduct detailed lab work as part of the company's ongoing photonics development and manufacturing activities.

Siver’s strategic shift
For makers and developers of InP lasers, meeting exacting customer demands promises to pay dividends, given the size of this market and the phenomenal projections for growth.

So lucrative is this opportunity that it has led Sivers Semiconductors to shift its business model from one specialising in projects, to being a product-focused, product-oriented company.

To support this change, Sivers is planning to spend $30 million on upgrading its fab in Glasgow, Scotland.

In operation for over 25 years, and previously the flagship facility of CST Global, this fab is already capable of front-end-of-line fabrication and back-end-of-line assembly, for small volumes of InP photonic products.

According to Neeraj Chopra, COO of Sivers Semiconductors, the multi-million-dollar investment will: expand capacity; increase automation; and aid robustness, by eliminating particular points of constraint in equipment or manufacturing capability.

Included in Sivers’ investment is an upgrade to its MOCVD tools used for growing epiwafers and re-growing epilayers.

Already underway, the expansion programme should be over before the end of next year, by which time the facility should be capable of producing 100 million continuous-wave distributed feedback (DFB) InP lasers per annum. By then, Sivers will have recruited more engineers, operators and technicians.

The upgraded facility will strengthen Sivers’ unique hybrid manufacturing model, according to Chopra: “We can do the front-end-of-line in volume in Glasgow, and for back-end-of-line, which is less technical, we can outsource to our manufacturing partners.”

Those partners, which undertake the likes of assembly, thinning, dicing, packaging and testing, often operate in locations with relatively low overheads. This enables a reduction in the total cost of production for the laser.

Over the last few years, Sivers has grabbed headlines for forming partnerships with overseas foundries. This continues to be part of the company’s strategy. However, don't assume that all these collaborations are known, and all recently established relationships still exist. “For the last year we have fortified our supply chain resilience with new partners, both internally and externally,” says Chopra.

Ramping resilience
To enhance Sivers’ resilience, it is working with suppliers of InP substrates and epiwafers.

For the former, there are very, very few suppliers, and supply chains are hampered by export controls. To navigate these choppy waters, Sivers is working with the leading InP substrate manufacturers inside and outside China, and making commitments for volumes. Some substrates are shipped to Sivers’ epiwafer suppliers, and a smaller proportion are employed for in-house production of epiwafers.

At the Glasgow fab, efforts are now overseen by David Clarke, recently appointed as Sivers VP of Engineering for Photonics. Well-qualified for this role, Clarke combines expertise in laser technology with experience in ramping the production of these sources.

Product roadmaps
At the recent ECOC meeting, Sivers promoted its latest high-power InP lasers. Helping their development is knowledge gained from undertaking foundry-based work for numerous producers and developers of lasers.

The company’s flagship DFB lasers have output powers of 70 mW and 100 mW. While very impressive by historical standards, there’s demand for even more power, which must be realised without scarifying performance. According to Alex McCann, Managing Director of the Photonics business at Sivers Semiconductors, customers are keen to move to 200 mW lasers, and then on to 400 mW. “Customers are asking for those types of roadmaps.”

As well as higher powers, there’s much interest in migrating from single lasers to arrays, a move that simplifies the build-out of data centres.

To illustrate this point, McCann explains that when deploying eight isolated lasers, each requires alignment and assembly. “But if I provide an array with eight lasers, they only have to align the two outside ones, and they get six for free. So, there's a big push for laser arrays, which we also produce.”

By developing products that could be deployed in tomorrow’s data centres, while building robust and resilient supply chains to make the lasers in demand today, Sivers is well-placed to thrive over the coming years. The roll-out of AI data centres is in its infancy, but the potential could be enormous – and it could help to revitalise part of Scotland with a rich history in the production of semiconductors.