I had the good fortune to be able to attend a very informative five-day photonic integrated circuit (PIC) training this last week in Santa Clara, CA. The training was organized by Erik Pennings of 7 Pennies consulting and hosted by Tektronix. Several ecosystem partners from the design automation, photonic foundries and photonic… Read More
Tag: silicon photonics
A Peek Inside the Global Foundries Photonic Death Star!
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
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
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’s… Read More
Electrical-Optical Design, A Bridge to Terabitsia
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
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 viable… Read More
The Young and the Restless, PDA vs EDA, Photonic Soaps continued…
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)
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)
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!
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