A Peek Inside the Global Foundries Photonic Death Star!

A Peek Inside the Global Foundries Photonic Death Star!
by Mitch Heins on 11-03-2016 at 12:00 pm

Last week I wrote about the Photonics Summit and hands-on training hosted by Cadence Design, PhoeniX Software and Lumerical Solutions and in that article I mentioned that Ted Letavic of Global Foundries laid out a powerful argument for why integrated photonics is a technology that is going main stream. This article dives into … Read More


Score 1 for IDMs vs Fabless Intel King of the Photonics Hill in Data Centers

Score 1 for IDMs vs Fabless Intel King of the Photonics Hill in Data Centers
by Mitch Heins on 08-18-2016 at 12:00 pm

For those of you waiting with baited breath to see the Fabless community with the likes of Broadcom or Qualcomm challenge Intel in the data center space, you were just dealt a significant blow. Intel debuted their long awaited silicon photonics modules for what they called “lightning-fast” connectivity in data centers. Intel … Read More


Fabless Photonics Gets a Boost with Aurrion Acquistion by Juniper Networks

Fabless Photonics Gets a Boost with Aurrion Acquistion by Juniper Networks
by Mitch Heins on 08-07-2016 at 12:00 pm

It was announced this week that Juniper Networks is acquiring integrated photonics fabless supplier Aurrion for an undisclosed amount. Aurrion was founded in 2008 by Dr. Alexander Fang of ex Intel and IBM fame and specializes in Indium Phosphide (InP) based transceivers for long-haul communications.

The twist that made Aurrion’sRead More


Electrical-Optical Design, A Bridge to Terabitsia

Electrical-Optical Design, A Bridge to Terabitsia
by Mitch Heins on 07-19-2016 at 12:00 pm

If you don’t get the tongue in cheek reference of the title, you probably don’t have children who liked to watch Disney movies. All four of my daughters loved Disney and so, I am forever shaped by the Wonderful World of Disney. In 2007 Disney adapted to the screen a novel called, ‘A Bridge to Terabithia’, in which two adolescents escape… Read More


Integrated Photonics – Getting Light to the PIC by Embedding Polymer Waveguides in the PCB

Integrated Photonics – Getting Light to the PIC by Embedding Polymer Waveguides in the PCB
by Mitch Heins on 07-04-2016 at 7:00 am

This week I had the privilege of representing one of my clients at the AIM Photonics road map meetings held at MIT in Cambridge, MA. While this was a closed meeting for AIM members, it’s no secret that AIM Photonics, which stands forAmerican Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics, is working diligently to bring up a viableRead More


The Young and the Restless, PDA vs EDA, Photonic Soaps continued…

The Young and the Restless, PDA vs EDA, Photonic Soaps continued…
by Mitch Heins on 06-16-2016 at 7:00 am

If you’ve followed my last article, The Guiding Light and Other Photonic Soaps, you read my comments about the use of waveguides to “guide the light” in photonic integrated circuits (PICs). This article continues the soap opera theme, this time with the Young and the Restless. My point here is that I am continually struck by the dichotomies… Read More


5G, Video and SDNs – High Volume Drivers for Photonic Systems-on-Chip (PSoC)

5G, Video and SDNs – High Volume Drivers for Photonic Systems-on-Chip (PSoC)
by Mitch Heins on 05-24-2016 at 7:00 am

The move towards 5G networks with demands for decreased latency ( 100 devices/m[SUP]2[/SUP]), and the desire to flexibly configure and integrate mobile, fixed, optical and satellite telecommunications is putting tremendous pressure on the design of next generation telecom equipment. Silicon photonics promises to be the… Read More


5G, Video and SDNs – High Volume Drivers for Photonic Systems-on-Chip (PSoC)

5G, Video and SDNs – High Volume Drivers for Photonic Systems-on-Chip (PSoC)
by Mitch Heins on 05-24-2016 at 7:00 am

The move towards 5G networks with demands for decreased latency ( 100 devices/m[SUP]2[/SUP]), and the desire to flexibly configure and integrate mobile, fixed, optical and satellite telecommunications is putting tremendous pressure on the design of next generation telecom equipment. Silicon photonics promises to be the… Read More


Is the Future Finally Here? What a GaAs!

Is the Future Finally Here? What a GaAs!
by Mitch Heins on 05-05-2016 at 4:00 pm

Back in 1983 I was working for Texas Instruments during the beginning of the push to let common electrical engineers develop their own CMOS application specific ICs (ASICs). This would eventually the be the fuel that fed the semiconductor engine to reach over $335 billion in 2015. At that time, I was a young guy and I had a rascally … Read More


Mind The Gap – Boarding the Silicon Photonics Packaging Train

Mind The Gap – Boarding the Silicon Photonics Packaging Train
by Mitch Heins on 05-01-2016 at 8:00 pm


I’ve been doing a lot of reading on silicon photonics lately and I’ve come to realize that while there is much written on the development of individual silicon photonic components and devices (modulators, photo detectors, optical amplifiers and such) that much of the cost and therefore chances of economic success… Read More