TowerJazz Rolls Out Silicon Photonics Process

SAN FRANCISCO—Specialty foundry TowerJazz Thursday (March 23) rolled out a silicon photonic (SiPho) process to complement its silicon-germanium (SiGe) BiCMOS process used for manufacturing optical transceiver electronics.

“We are excited to be entering the silicon photonics foundry space in order to provide solutions to a greater portion of the optical transceiver market for our customers,” said Marco Racanelli, senior vice president and general manager TowerJazz's RF & High Performance Analog business unit, in a statement.
Silicon photonics is a promising emerging technology for the production of photonic ICs, which transfer data using laser light in less time than conventional ICs.
The silicon photonic process, set to be available in the third quarter, is built to enable a range of optical fiber interconnect Tx and Rx front-end optical ICs, TowerJazz said. The process includes several versions of single-mode silicon waveguides, high speed germanium photodetectors, p-n junction modulators and enablement for edge and grating couplers, according to the company.
TowerJazz also announced it would collaborate with PhoeniX Software to provide process design kits for its customers developing optical networking and data center interconnects applications.

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