Silicon Photonics

A team of researchers from the University of Southampton's Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) have demonstrated the first all-silicon optical transmitter at 100Gb/s and beyond without the use of digital signal processing (DSP).

Technology research institute, CEA-Leti has demonstrated a fully packaged CWDM optical transceiver module with data transfer of 100Gb/s per fibre.

Silicon photonics foundry service provider, CompoundTek has expanded to open a silicon photonics test facility in Singapore.

AOI is demonstrating the feasibility of its silicon photonics platform for OBO requirements.

Molex Ventures is making a strategic investment and collaboration between the Molex Optical Solutions Group and Elenion Technologies in order to jointly develop, manufacture and promote silicon photonic-based product solutions.

Silicon photonics is on the verge of experiencing dramatic uptake in optical transceivers, market research firm Yole Développement has reported, with the technology set to capture 35 per cent – almost $4 billion – of the optical transceiver market by 2025, up from just a few per cent in 2016.

The transceivers are expected to be used mostly for intra-data centre communication, according to Yole, with the strongest demand being for 400G (400 Gigabits per second), and 200G acting as an intermediate step between 100G and 400G.

Mellanox Technologies is stopping development of its 1550nm silicon photonics technology and products, effective immediately. About 100 people will lose their jobs as a result.

Mellanox gained its silicon photonics activities through the 2013 acquisition of Kotura in a deal valued at $82 million. The start-up had developed a line of variable optical attenuators (VOA) in silicon photonics, and believed that its technology showed great promise to drive down the cost of high-speed interconnect products.