News: Optoelectronics
27 May 2020
Infinera leverages Tower’s SiGe BiCMOS in 800Gbs optical engine
Specialty foundry Tower Semiconductor Ltd (which has fabrication plants in Migdal Haemek, Israel, and at its US subsidiaries in Newport Beach, CA and San Antonio, TX, and at TowerJazz Japan Ltd) says that its Terabit silicon-germanium (SiGe) BiCMOS platform has been selected for use in the 800G sixth-generation Infinite Capacity Engine (ICE6) of Infinera Corp of Sunnyvale, CA, USA, a vertically integrated manufacturer of digital optical network systems incorporating its own indium phosphide (InP)-based photonic integrated circuits (PICs).
ICE6’s 800Gb/s single wavelength provides what is claimed to be significant cost, power and fiber capacity advantages to network operators, enabling them to cost-effectively address the ever-increasing bandwidth demand on their networks.
“Infinera always leverages best-in-class technologies to achieve industry-leading system performance. This includes Infinera’s industry-leading indium phosphide (InP) photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and Tower’s advanced silicon-germanium (SiGe) for high-bandwidth driver and receiver circuitry,” says Dr Ray Milano, senior VP, Optical Module Development at Infinera.
The latest innovation from Infinera’s Optical Innovation Center, the ICE6 optical engine is designed in a compact digital coherent optical (DCO) package that can be easily integrated into a variety of networking platforms. Supporting two 800G wavelengths, it is claimed that the 1.6Tbs optical engine has demonstrated significantly superior performance than competing solutions, providing incremental value to network operators.
Tower’s SBC18 Terabit SiGe BiCMOS platform is optimized for high-speed networking applications, providing transistors with speeds exceeding 300GHz, and is a workhorse for those designing high-performance telecom and datacom optical networks with speeds of 100Gbps, 400Gbps and now 800Gbps. The SiGe platform is also tailored to deliver the highest performance for high-frequency wireless communications such as automotive radar, satellite communications and 5G for both sub-6GHz and millimeter-wave bands.
“Our collaboration with Infinera’s team has allowed both companies to achieve an important milestone in the optical transmission market segment,” says Dr Marco Racanelli, senior VP & general manager of Tower’s Analog IC business unit. “Tower continues to bring to market cutting-edge technologies and corresponding high-volume manufacturing capabilities to serve the rapidly growing data transport market and enable industry-leading companies such as Infinera to deliver differentiated, high-value solutions.”
