Insights
Optical System-on-Chip: Bringing Scalable and Affordable DWDM to the Edges of the Network
While electrical System-on-Chips have been around for some time, EFFECT Photonics is the first company in the world to introduce a full optical System-on-Chip – combining all the optical elements needed for optical networking onto a single die.
EFFECT Photonics’ System-on-Chip technology focuses on dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM), which is regarded as an important innovation in optical networks. DWDM is scalable, transparent and enables provision of high-bandwidth services. It is the technology of choice for many networking applications today. Using many different wavelengths of light to route data makes these systems more efficient, flexible, and cost-effective to build, own, and operate compared to single-channel, point-to-point links. Thanks to our high-density electrical interconnect and packaging technology, the optical System-on-Chip can be assembled for volume manufacture at a low cost.
In this short animation, we show you how EFFECT Photonics takes a platform approach to designing optical System-on-Chips using our extensive library of experimentally verified optical building blocks. This library contains all the optical components needed to build a monolithically integrated optical engine. By combining different building blocks, our photonic integrated circuit (PIC) designers create a new optical System-on-Chip that can be used in the next-generation optical transceivers we are developing. This System-on-Chip is then combined with simple packaging to deliver highly integrated optical communication products.
About EFFECT Photonics
EFFECT Photonics delivers highly integrated optical communications products based on its Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) optical System-on-Chip technology. The key enabling technology for DWDM systems is full monolithic integration of all photonic components within a single chip and being able to produce these in volume with high yield at low cost. With this capability, EFFECT Photonics is addressing the need for low cost DWDM solutions driven by the soaring demand for high bandwidth connections between datacentres and back from mobile cell towers. EFFECT Photonics is headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, with additional R&D and manufacturing in South West UK, and a facility opening soon in the US. http://www.effectphotonics.com