News Article
OneChip's InP PICs trounce silicon and VCSEL technologies
The firm's fully integrated indium phosphide devices prevent the complicated steps required by CMOS silicon and VCSEL processess
OneChip Photonics has launched a new family of Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC)-based 100Gbps (gigabits per second) optical interconnects.
They will enable transceiver manufacturers to produce high-speed, low-power and small-size modules for Data Centre Interconnect (DCI) applications.
OneChip’s fully integrated 100Gbps solutions provide a myriad of advantages over solutions based on silicon photonics, discrete components and vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs).
This new family of 100Gbps solutions builds on the PIC-based receiver chips that OneChip previously announced, and made available for partner testing, in 2012.
OneChip will display these PIC-based 100Gbps solutions at booth #1127 at the OFC/NFOEC 2013 Exposition, scheduled for March 19th to 21st at the Anaheim Convention Centre in Anaheim, California.
Jim Hjartarson, CEO of OneChip Photonics, says, “OneChip can provide transceiver and system manufacturers with the integrated solutions that they need to meet their cost, power, size and speed requirements, without all of the problems inherent with silicon photonics solutions.”
Vladimir Kozlov, Founder and CEO of LightCounting, a leading optical communications market research company, adds, “Integration of optics and electronics on one chip holds strong promise for providing low power, cost-effective 100Gbps interface modules for data centre applications. These attributes will be important in this high-volume market. In fact, this market is only going to be high volume if low power and low cost products are available.”
According to LightCounting, 100 Gigabit Ethernet transceiver sales are expected to grow from $144 million in 2012 to almost $700 million in 2017 (at 36 percent CAGR).
Integrated Solutions are Needed to Meet Cost, Power & Size Requirements in the Data Centre
System integrators want to drive costs down to the point where 100Gbps solutions are as cost-effective to implement as 10Gbps solutions are today. Currently, 100GBASE-LR4 implementations are far too expensive to be useful in data centre interconnect applications.
What's more, transceiver providers want to fit 100Gbps solutions into QSFP (Quad Small Form factor Pluggable) modules, as QSFPs represent the smallest form factor for packaged transceivers, but they must dissipate only 3.5 watts of power or less.
The only way to meet the cost, power and size requirements, for DCI applications, is through tightly integrated chipsets and sub-assemblies. This is where OneChip’s breakthrough PIC technology comes in.
OneChip monolithically integrates all of the optical functions required for an optical transceiver into a single InP-based chip. All of the active components (Distributed Feedback “DFB” laser, Electro-Absorption Modulator “EAM,” and Waveguide Photodetector “WPD”) and passive components (Wavelength Division Multiplexing “WDM” combiner, splitter and Spot-Size Converter “SSC”) of the chip are, uniquely, integrated in one epitaxial growth step - without re-growth or post-growth modification of the epitaxial material.
These Multi-Guide Vertical Integration (MGVI)-based PICs enable numerous cost, power and size advantages over competing solutions based on silicon photonics, discrete components and VCSELs.
Why InP PIC-based 100Gbps Solutions Are Better Than Solutions based on Silicon Photonics, Discrete Components and VCSELs
Because silicon cannot lase and also detect in the required spectral range (1300nm), silicon photonics providers must add materials which can, for example, bond III-V semiconductors (for lasing) or epitaxially overgrow germanium (for detection) on top of silicon.
Thus, silicon photonics chips cannot be manufactured simply by using standard CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) materials and processes. This also makes adding photonics capability to advanced sub-micron silicon process nodes cost prohibitive. These inherent drawbacks prevent silicon photonics solutions from achieving the cost and size requirements - and the ability to manufacture in volume through standard electronics foundries - needed in Data Centre Interconnect applications.
By contrast, OneChip’s single-growth MGVI platform eliminates the need for multiple epitaxial regrowth steps, in which material from the previous growth step(s) that is selectively etched out must be replaced with another material regrowth step(s).
Consequently, OneChip can partner with standard, high-volume InP electronics foundries to fabricate its PIC-based solutions, which improves economies of scale. The firm already has relationships with IQE and Global Communication Semiconductors (GCS).
Also, OneChip’s MGVI platform in InP is based on the same process that inherently produces the best and fastest Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors (HBTs) used in Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFICs).
As such, the company also will be able to integrate electronics, such as Transimpedance Amplifiers (TIAs) and modulator drivers, within a commercially available and volume-scalable process. The silicon photonics dream of leveraging high-volume electronic chip production, while combining photonics and electronics onto the same substrate, is ironically best realised in InP.
All of these advantages hold true when comparing OneChip’s 100Gbps solutions with solutions based on discrete components and VCSELs, as well.
The inherent drawbacks of VCSEL-based solutions, for example, are that they cannot accommodate Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM), are difficult to couple with single mode fibres, and become expensive when made to address long-wavelength interconnect applications.
OneChip’s InP-based PIC technology enables it to multiplex multiple lasers together and produce chip and module solutions that support standard communications wavelengths - for example, in the 1310nm window - very cost effectively.
The company's regrowth-free, PIC-based InP technology has proven successful in the very cost-sensitive, high-volume Passive Optical Network (PON) market, as OneChip’s PIC-based PON transceivers and Bi-directional Optical Sub-Assemblies (BOSAs) already are being deployed by the world’s largest PON system providers.
Now, OneChip is extending its technology to the high-volume DCI market. This market requires 100Gbps+ solutions with higher interface density and longer reach than those based on VCSELs and multi-mode fibres. The DCI market also requires lower cost and power consumption than the solutions offered by the traditional telecom component vendors.
The new family of 100Gbps Data Centre Interconnect PICs includes the following. This chart also references the 40Gbps DCI PICs that OneChip announced previously.
OneChip is currently working with partners to optimally package these 100G and 40G PICs for specific applications.
The firm is also developing PIC-based 100GE PSM4 TROSAs (Transmitter-Receiver Optical Sub-Assemblies) for DCI applications.
They will enable transceiver manufacturers to produce high-speed, low-power and small-size modules for Data Centre Interconnect (DCI) applications.
OneChip’s fully integrated 100Gbps solutions provide a myriad of advantages over solutions based on silicon photonics, discrete components and vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs).
This new family of 100Gbps solutions builds on the PIC-based receiver chips that OneChip previously announced, and made available for partner testing, in 2012.
OneChip will display these PIC-based 100Gbps solutions at booth #1127 at the OFC/NFOEC 2013 Exposition, scheduled for March 19th to 21st at the Anaheim Convention Centre in Anaheim, California.
Jim Hjartarson, CEO of OneChip Photonics, says, “OneChip can provide transceiver and system manufacturers with the integrated solutions that they need to meet their cost, power, size and speed requirements, without all of the problems inherent with silicon photonics solutions.”
Vladimir Kozlov, Founder and CEO of LightCounting, a leading optical communications market research company, adds, “Integration of optics and electronics on one chip holds strong promise for providing low power, cost-effective 100Gbps interface modules for data centre applications. These attributes will be important in this high-volume market. In fact, this market is only going to be high volume if low power and low cost products are available.”
According to LightCounting, 100 Gigabit Ethernet transceiver sales are expected to grow from $144 million in 2012 to almost $700 million in 2017 (at 36 percent CAGR).
Integrated Solutions are Needed to Meet Cost, Power & Size Requirements in the Data Centre
System integrators want to drive costs down to the point where 100Gbps solutions are as cost-effective to implement as 10Gbps solutions are today. Currently, 100GBASE-LR4 implementations are far too expensive to be useful in data centre interconnect applications.
What's more, transceiver providers want to fit 100Gbps solutions into QSFP (Quad Small Form factor Pluggable) modules, as QSFPs represent the smallest form factor for packaged transceivers, but they must dissipate only 3.5 watts of power or less.
The only way to meet the cost, power and size requirements, for DCI applications, is through tightly integrated chipsets and sub-assemblies. This is where OneChip’s breakthrough PIC technology comes in.
OneChip monolithically integrates all of the optical functions required for an optical transceiver into a single InP-based chip. All of the active components (Distributed Feedback “DFB” laser, Electro-Absorption Modulator “EAM,” and Waveguide Photodetector “WPD”) and passive components (Wavelength Division Multiplexing “WDM” combiner, splitter and Spot-Size Converter “SSC”) of the chip are, uniquely, integrated in one epitaxial growth step - without re-growth or post-growth modification of the epitaxial material.
These Multi-Guide Vertical Integration (MGVI)-based PICs enable numerous cost, power and size advantages over competing solutions based on silicon photonics, discrete components and VCSELs.
Why InP PIC-based 100Gbps Solutions Are Better Than Solutions based on Silicon Photonics, Discrete Components and VCSELs
Because silicon cannot lase and also detect in the required spectral range (1300nm), silicon photonics providers must add materials which can, for example, bond III-V semiconductors (for lasing) or epitaxially overgrow germanium (for detection) on top of silicon.
Thus, silicon photonics chips cannot be manufactured simply by using standard CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) materials and processes. This also makes adding photonics capability to advanced sub-micron silicon process nodes cost prohibitive. These inherent drawbacks prevent silicon photonics solutions from achieving the cost and size requirements - and the ability to manufacture in volume through standard electronics foundries - needed in Data Centre Interconnect applications.
By contrast, OneChip’s single-growth MGVI platform eliminates the need for multiple epitaxial regrowth steps, in which material from the previous growth step(s) that is selectively etched out must be replaced with another material regrowth step(s).
Consequently, OneChip can partner with standard, high-volume InP electronics foundries to fabricate its PIC-based solutions, which improves economies of scale. The firm already has relationships with IQE and Global Communication Semiconductors (GCS).
Also, OneChip’s MGVI platform in InP is based on the same process that inherently produces the best and fastest Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors (HBTs) used in Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFICs).
As such, the company also will be able to integrate electronics, such as Transimpedance Amplifiers (TIAs) and modulator drivers, within a commercially available and volume-scalable process. The silicon photonics dream of leveraging high-volume electronic chip production, while combining photonics and electronics onto the same substrate, is ironically best realised in InP.
All of these advantages hold true when comparing OneChip’s 100Gbps solutions with solutions based on discrete components and VCSELs, as well.
The inherent drawbacks of VCSEL-based solutions, for example, are that they cannot accommodate Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM), are difficult to couple with single mode fibres, and become expensive when made to address long-wavelength interconnect applications.
OneChip’s InP-based PIC technology enables it to multiplex multiple lasers together and produce chip and module solutions that support standard communications wavelengths - for example, in the 1310nm window - very cost effectively.
The company's regrowth-free, PIC-based InP technology has proven successful in the very cost-sensitive, high-volume Passive Optical Network (PON) market, as OneChip’s PIC-based PON transceivers and Bi-directional Optical Sub-Assemblies (BOSAs) already are being deployed by the world’s largest PON system providers.
Now, OneChip is extending its technology to the high-volume DCI market. This market requires 100Gbps+ solutions with higher interface density and longer reach than those based on VCSELs and multi-mode fibres. The DCI market also requires lower cost and power consumption than the solutions offered by the traditional telecom component vendors.
The new family of 100Gbps Data Centre Interconnect PICs includes the following. This chart also references the 40Gbps DCI PICs that OneChip announced previously.
OneChip is currently working with partners to optimally package these 100G and 40G PICs for specific applications.
The firm is also developing PIC-based 100GE PSM4 TROSAs (Transmitter-Receiver Optical Sub-Assemblies) for DCI applications.
