Wednesday, September 15, 2021

GlobalFoundries announces 45nm Silicon Photonics platform

GlobalFoundries announced a  new Silicon Photonics 45nm platform for combining RF CMOS and optical components on the same chip.

The monolithic platform includes an innovative new feature, the first micro ring resonator (MRR) optical component in 300 mm wafer technology.

GF said the new platform has passed critical technology milestones and is on track for full technology qualification by Q1 2022. The company also confirms that it is engaged with leading customers and partners on this new platform.


https://gf.com/blog/gf-innovation-moving-data-light-speed

Ayar Labs demos terabit link for Co-Packaged Optics and chip-to-chip

Ayar Labs demonstrated the industry’s first Terabit per second Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) optical link with its TeraPHY optical I/O chiplet and SuperNova multi-wavelength optical source. The demonstration shows a fully functional TeraPHY chiplet with 8 optical ports running error free without Forward Error Correction (FEC) for a total bandwidth of 1.024 Tbps and at less than 5 pJ/bit energy efficiency. “This is yet another industry...

GlobalFoundries adapts silicon photonics for quantum computing

GlobalFoundries is now manufacturing the silicon photonic and electronic chips that form the foundation of PsiQuantum's Q1 quantum computer.

PsiQuantum, a start-up based in Palo Alto, California, aims to be the first to deliver a commercially viable quantum computer with one million qubits.

PsiQuantum and GF have now demonstrated the ability to manufacture core quantum components, such as single-photon sources and single-photon detectors, with precision and in volume, using the standard manufacturing processes of GF’s semiconductor fab. The companies have also installed proprietary production and manufacturing equipment in two of GF’s 300mm fabs to produce thousands of Q1 silicon photonic chips at its facility in upstate New York, and state-of-the-art electronic control chips at its Fab 1 facility in Dresden, Germany.

PsiQuantum’s Q1 system represents breakthroughs in silicon photonics, which the company believes is the only way to scale to 1 million-plus qubits and beyond and to deliver an error-corrected, fault-tolerant, general-purpose quantum computer.

“In the past year, we have experienced a decade of technological change. Now, due to the digital transformation and the explosion of data we are faced with problems that require quantum computing to further accelerate the Renaissance of Compute,” said Amir Faintuch, senior vice president and general manager of Compute and Wired Infrastructure at GF. “PsiQuantum and GF’s partnership is a powerful combination of PsiQuantum’s photonic quantum computing expertise and GF’s silicon photonics manufacturing capability that will transform industries and technology applications across climate, energy, healthcare, materials science, and government.”

“This is a major achievement for both the quantum and semiconductor industries, demonstrating that it’s possible to build the critical components of a quantum computer on a silicon chip, using the standard manufacturing processes of a world-leading semiconductor fab,” said Pete Shadbolt, chief strategy officer and co-founder of PsiQuantum. “When we first envisioned PsiQuantum, we knew that scaling the system would be the existential question. Together with GLOBALFOUNDRIES, we have validated the manufacturing path for silicon photonics and are confident that by the middle of this decade, PsiQuantum will have completely stood up all the manufacturing lines and processes necessary to begin assembling a final machine.”