Tower Semiconductor and Coherent announced demonstration of 400 Gbps/lane data transmission using a silicon modulator built in a production-ready silicon photonics (SiPho) process. The demonstration targets next-generation 3.2T optical transceivers and extends silicon capabilities for pluggable transceivers and Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) in datacenter connections.
The modulator is a silicon Mach-Zehnder Modulator (MZM) that does not use exotic materials. Details were presented at the Optical Fiber Conference (OFC) last week. The demonstration achieved a clear open eye at 420 Gb/s PAM4 and utilized Coherent’s InP CW high power laser. The performance resulted from collaboration between Coherent’s design expertise and Tower Semiconductor’s SiPho platform.
The optical transceiver market continues to outpace prior projections, with next-generation bandwidth required to support exponential growth in AI infrastructure.
Russell Ellwanger, CEO of Tower Semiconductor, stated that the company values the partnership with Coherent and is excited about the breakthrough. He noted that the result can extend the use of silicon for another generation of transceivers while re-utilizing multi-fab capacity investments, as the company continues work on more advanced material systems for next generations.
Jim Anderson, CEO of Coherent, said the company is pleased to partner with Tower Semiconductor on Silicon Photonics Platforms to advance high-performance optical interconnects for AI-driven data centers.
The announcement focuses on a production-ready SiPho process for high-speed data transmission in optical transceivers.
