News: Optoelectronics
9 March 2022
Lumentum and Ayar Labs collaborate on CW-WDM MSA-compliant external laser sources for co-packaged optical interconnects
Lumentum Holdings Inc of San Jose, CA, USA (which designs and makes photonic products for optical networks and lasers in industrial and consumer markets) and Ayar Labs of Santa Clara, CA, USA, whose integrated optical I/Os are targeted at artificial intelligence (AI), cloud, high-performance computing (HPC), 5G, and light detection & ranging (LIDAR), have entered into a strategic collaboration agreement to deliver CW-WDM MSA (continuous-wave wavelength division multiplexing multi-source agreement)-compliant external laser sources in high volume. These light sources are critical to power Ayar Labs’ optical I/O solution, which are said to deliver breakthrough bandwidth, energy-efficiency and latency benefits for computing and networking over existing short-reach copper links.
The CW-WDM MSA was formed to standardize WDM CW sources in the O-band for emerging advanced integrated optics applications that are expected to move to 8, 16 and 32 wavelengths. Such higher wavelength counts are needed for emerging applications such as silicon photonics (SiPh)-based high-density co-packaged optics, optical computing, and AI, and enable a leap in performance, efficiency, cost and bandwidth scaling compared with previous technology generations.
“Co-packaged optics to replace traditional copper interconnects is a massive new market opportunity broadly recognized by the industry and one that Lumentum is well positioned to address with our proven laser technologies and manufacturing scale,” believes Walter Jankovic, senior VP & general manager of Datacom at Lumentum. “Ayar Labs is a leader in the development and commercialization of this market opportunity, and we believe that, working together, we can accelerate this technology transition for the benefit of all,” he adds.
“Since our founding [in 2015], Ayar defined optical I/O as the disruptive transition from copper and electrons to fiber optics and photons for short-reach data communication,” says Ayar Labs’ CEO Charles Wuischpard. “Ayar Labs’ patented silicon photonics technology and new industry standards like the CW-WDM MSA are critical to this transition, as is the development of the manufacturing, supply chain and packaging ecosystem to cost-effectively deliver the solution at scale in the millions of units,” he adds. “Lumentum is one of the largest and most efficient laser manufacturers in the world, and will provide the proven capability to address the volume, quality and reliability requirements of our optical I/O solution.”
Last year, Ayar Labs demonstrated its 64-wavelength WDM optical source running at temperatures up to 100°C. The latest announcement follows news in late February of a strategic collaboration between Ayar Labs and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) for next-generation data-center architectures and networking with optical I/O, along with related news from GlobalFoundries for a first-of-its-kind silicon photonics manufacturing platform GF Fotonix, needed to address market demand for these solutions.
Ayar Labs and Lumentum are Promoter Members of the CW-WDM MSA, and GlobalFoundries and HPE are Observer Members.
GlobalFoundries collaborating on silicon photonics for data centers
HP and Ayar Labs to co-develop silicon photonics-based optical I/O for HPC and AI
Ayar demos ultra-dense optical interconnects on GlobalFoundries’ silicon photonics process
Sivers to develop CW-WDM MSA-compliant DFB laser arrays supporting Ayar’s optical I/Os
Ayar demos ultra-dense optical interconnects on GlobalFoundries’ silicon photonics process
