CARLSBAD, CA--(Marketwired - Mar 15, 2017) - Luxtera, the global innovation leader in Silicon Photonics solutions, today announced that it has partnered with TSMC for next generation silicon photonics manufacturing. This cooperation enables key technologies for future cloud, mobile infrastructure, enterprise, and high-performance computing (HPC) platforms. Together Luxtera and TSMC are developing an innovative Silicon Photonics technology platform that will provide more than double the optical link performance while enabling four times the raw data rate of any competing Silicon Photonics solution.
The new Silicon Photonics technology platform will also enable full SoC (System-On-Chip) integration of optical interconnect with the CMOS logic for applications including network switch, storage, or compute -- widely viewed as the next evolutionary step. Combined with TSMC silicon manufacturing excellence and scale, Luxtera's Silicon Photonic designs enable optical interconnects with significantly higher performance at lower cost and power that are critical to scaling future data centers and 5G mobile networks.
Luxtera's newest platform will be used in a full suite of next generation Silicon Photonics solutions to deliver 100G per lane optical interconnects, beginning with the deployment of 100GBase-DR and 400GBase-DR4 transceivers in 2018, and expanding to include other standards based solutions to service 25G, 50G, 100G, 200G, 400G, 800G, and 1 terabit optical interconnects. As a companion to the new Silicon Photonics technologies, Luxtera will be leveraging TSMC's 7nm CMOS to ensure best-in-class performance at the lowest power across its broader product portfolio.
"TSMC recognizes the growing importance of optical interconnect for our customers," said Dr. BJ Woo, TSMC Vice President of Business Development. "Our collaboration with Luxtera, an established technology leader, helps to deliver a silicon photonics technology platform to this market that addresses critical industry needs. We are very pleased our work together is quickly demonstrating results."
"We are excited about the partnership with TSMC that has established a stellar track record of technology leadership, manufacturing excellence and customer trust that is unmatched in the foundry industry," said Greg Young, CEO and President of Luxtera. "Together, we will enable unparalleled innovation in the Silicon Photonics industry."
Cloud computing and mobile networking will continue to drive dramatic increases in both the rate and volume of optical interconnects. Meeting these needs will require mass proliferation of Silicon Photonics solutions, with CMOS manufacturing a crucial ingredient for success. TSMC has proven its manufacturing excellence time and again, and is the perfect partner for the next generation of Luxtera products. Luxtera's long production history, with over 1 million silicon photonics transceivers shipped, makes it strongly positioned to fully utilize TSMC's technology capabilities. Together Luxtera and TSMC will pave the way to make Silicon Photonics the dominant optical interconnect technology worldwide.