Sunday, November 17, 2019

Keysight, FormFactor and CompoundTek partner on silicon photonics R&D

Keysight Technologies has entered into an R&D partnership with FormFactor, a provider of essential test and measurement technologies along the full IC life cycle and CompoundTek, a global foundry services leader in emerging silicon photonic solutions (SiPh).

The companies have jointly developed an advanced photonics on-wafer testing solution that delivers industry-first capabilities including automated alignment, simultaneous optical-optical and optical-electrical device tests.

The joint solution, to be offered by CompoundTek, includes:

  • The FormFactor CM300xi-SiPh, with automated wafer level photonics positioning combined with Keysight’s industry standard IL/PDL engines and N7700A Photonics Application Suite (PAS), to support wavelength repeatability of ±1.5 pm at two-way sweeps up to 200 nm/s within 1240nm to 1650nm to ensure accuracy and repeatability from O-band to L-band.
  • Keysight’s N4373E 67 GHz Lightwave Component Analyzer which delivers unprecedented bandwidth for both optical receiver testing and optical transmitter testing with guaranteed specifications for electro-optical S-parameter measurements for device traceability.
  • Keysight’s PathWave software platform which provides a consistent user experience, common data formats and control interfaces.
  • FormFactor’s SiPh software that enables automated calibrations and alignments and simplifies integration with Keysight’s PathWave software platform, as well as optical instrumentation, to ensure ease of use.

“Innovation in optics is critical to connect the world and help the industry to monetize 5G, as well as data center and telecom services,” said Dr. Joachim Peerlings, vice president of Network and Data Center Solutions at Keysight Technologies. “Advancing in speed as well as power and cost efficiency requires a tightly connected eco-system to jointly solve the challenges ahead. We are pleased with our partnerships and progress of enabling this eco-system through our unmatched photonics test expertise.”