Avanex launches opto chip foundry services
Avanex is to offer foundry services for custom GaAs and InP optoelectronic chip manufacturing.
The Fremont, CA, company, which acquired its epitaxy and wafer-processing capability from Alcatel Optronics and Corning back in 2003 (see related story), is also launching a set of standard optoelectronic InP and GaAs chips.
Backed by extensive Class 100 and Class 1000 cleanrooms, the foundry services on offer include custom chip design, epitaxy, wafer processing at a variety of wafer sizes, optical and structural analysis techniques and material characterization.
Other processes available include electron-beam evaporation, sputtering, wet and dry etching and photolithography.
"We have more than 15 years of experience with InP and lithium niobate processes, and four years of experience and field-proven GaAs technology," said Avanex CEO Jo Major.
The move ought to help the optoelectronics industry move closer to the standard electronic manufacturing model, something that will be necessary if the cost of InP technology is to drop sufficiently to meet the demands of the emerging fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) market.
Companies such as BinOptics and Eblana Photonics (see related stories) have recently made technological progress that should also help reduce the cost of InP chips.
Avanex's move into offering foundry services came just a week before the biggest fiber-optic communications event of the year, the OFC/NFOEC show in Anaheim, CA.
