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MACOM and GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) have signed a collaboration to ramp MACOM’s Laser Photonic Integrated Circuit (L-PIC) platform using GF’s current-generation silicon photonics offering 90WG to meet data center and 5G telecom demands. The strategic collaboration will leverage GF’s 300 mm silicon manufacturing process to deliver requisite cost, scale and capacity that is expected to enable mainstream L-PIC deployment for hyperscale Data Center interconnects and 5G network deployments at 100 Gbps, 400 Gbps and beyond.

GF’s 90WG, built on the company’s 90 nm SOI technology using 300 mm wafer processing, enables low-cost integration of optical devices like modulators, multiplexers and detectors into a single silicon substrate. MACOM’s L-PIC technology solves the remaining key challenge of aligning lasers to the silicon PIC. Leveraging MACOM’s patented Etched Facet Technology (EFT) lasers and a patented Self-Alignment EFT (SAEFT) process, MACOM’s lasers are aligned and attached directly to the silicon photonics die with high speed and high coupling efficiency, thereby accelerating the adoption of silicon photonics in true industrial-scale applications.   

The industry is entering a long upgrade cycle for high speed optical connectivity within Cloud Data Centers as well as 5G optical build-outs. Industry forecasts project 2019, 2020 and beyond to be strong growth years for Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing (CWDM) and PAM-4, with the potential for overall unit demand in 2019, reaching volumes of 10 million units. With a track record of enabling 1.6 million ports in 2016, 4 million ports in 2017, and 6 million ports in 2018, MACOM will work with GF to scale L-PIC production aimed at meeting this exponentially growing market demand.

According to John Croteau, President and CEO of MACOM, with the demand for bandwidth doubling inside Data Centers each year, Cloud Service Providers are supply constrained in moving to 100 Gbps and beyond. On top of this, telecom carriers are now adopting the same CWDM and PAM-4 optical standards for their 5G Network build-outs. The ability to efficiently scale transceiver capacity and manufacturing throughput is critical. By aligning capacity expansion between GF’s silicon photonics technology and MACOM’s EFT Lasers, and moving to 300 mm wafers, he believes that this very strategic collaboration will allow them to meet industry demand and position themselves to service the industry for years to come.