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Press Releases

June 16, 2022

VodafoneZiggo Partners with EFFECT Photonics for 5G Connectivity on Existing Dutch DWDM Networks

Tunable SFP+ modules powered by photonics System-on-Chip (SoC) technology successfully tested on live Dutch network…

Coherent technology can give free-space optical systems greater reach and capacity, enabling these new applications in space and terrestrial links.

Insights

June 2, 2022

Free Space Optics for Access Networks

Optical signals are moving deeper and deeper into access networks. Achieving the ambitious performance goals…

Optical signals are moving deeper and deeper into access networks. Achieving the ambitious performance goals of 5G architectures requires more optics than ever between small cell sites. As stated in a recent report by Deloitte, “extending fiber optics deeper into remote communities is a critical economic driver, promoting competition, increasing connectivity for the rural and underserved, and supporting densification for wireless.”

However, there are cases in which fiber is not cost-effective to deploy. For example, a network carrier might need to quickly increase their access network capacity for a big festival, and there is no point in deploying extra fiber. In many remote areas, the customer base is so small that the costly deployment of fiber will not produce a return on investment. These situations must be addressed with some kind of wireless access solution. Carriers have used fixed microwave links for the longest time to handle these situations.

However, radio microwave frequencies might not be enough as the world demands greater internet speeds and simply changing over to higher carrier frequencies will limit the reach of microwave links. On top of that, the radio spectrum is quite crowded, and a carrier might not have the available licensed spectrum to deploy this wireless link. Besides, microwave point-to-point links produce plenty of heat while struggling to deliver capacity beyond a few Gbps. This is where free-space optics (FSO) comes into play.

FSO is a relatively straightforward technology to explain. A high-power laser source converts data into laser pulses and sends them through a lens system and into the atmosphere. The laser travels to the other side of the link and goes through a receiver lens system and a high-sensitivity photodetector converts those laser pulses back into electronic data that can be processed. In other words, instead of using an optical fiber as a medium to transmit the laser pulses, FSO uses air as a medium. The laser typically operates at an infrared wavelength of 1550nm that is safer on the eye.

Figure 1: Free space optical system diagram

FSO has often been talked about as some futuristic technology to be used in space applications, but it can be used more than that, including ground-to-ground links in access networks.FSO can deliver a wireless access solution that can be deployed quickly and with more bandwidth capacity, security features, and less power consumption than traditional point-to-point microwave links. Furthermore, since it does not use the RF spectrum, there is no need to secure spectrum licenses.

Overcoming the challenges of alignment, and atmospheric turbulence

FSO struggled to break through into practical applications despite these benefits because of certain technical challenges. Communications infrastructure, therefore, focused on more stable transmission alternatives such as optical fiber and RF signals. However, research and innovation over the last few decades are removing these technical barriers. One obstacle to achieving longer distances with FSO had to do with the quality of the laser signal.

Over time, FSO developers have found a solution to this issue in adaptive optics systems. These systems compensate for distortions in the beam by using an active optical element—such as a deformable mirror or liquid crystal—that dynamically changes its structure depending on the shape of the laser beam. Dutch startup Aircision uses this kind of technology in its FSO systems to increase their tolerance to atmospheric disruptions.

Figure 2: How an adaptive optical system works.

Another drawback of FSO is aligning the transmitter and receiver units. Laser beams are extremely narrow, and if the beam doesn’t hit the receiver lens at just the right angle, the information may be lost. The system requires almost perfect alignment, and it must maintain this alignment even when there are small changes in the beam trajectory due to wind or atmospheric disturbances.

FSO systems can handle these alignment issues with fast steering mirror (FSM) technology. These mirrors are driven with electrical signals and are fast, compact, and accurate enough to compensate the disturbances in the beam trajectory. However, even if the system can maintain the beam trajectory and shape, atmospheric turbulence can still degrade the message and cause interference in the data. Fortunately, FSO developers also use sophisticated digital signal processing techniques (DSP) to compensate for these impairments.

These DSP techniques allow for reliable, high-capacity, quick deployments even through thick clouds and fog. FSO links can now handle Gbps capacity over several kilometers thanks to all these technological advances. For example, a collaboration between Aircision and TNO demonstrated in 2021 that their FSO systems could reliably transmit 10 Gbps over 2.5 km. Aircision’s Scientific Director John Reid explained, “it’s an important milestone to show we can outperform microwave E-band antennas and provide a realistic solution for the upcoming 5G system.”

An alternative for safe, private networks

An understated benefit of FSO is that, from a physics perspective, they are arguably the most secure form of wireless communication available today. Point-to-point microwave links transmit a far more directional beam than mobile antennas or WiFi systems, which reduces the potential for security breaches. However, even these narrower microwave beams are still spread out enough to cover a wide footprint vulnerable to eavesdropping and jamming.

At a 1km distance, the beam can spread out enough to cover roughly the length of a building, and at 5km, it could cover an entire city block. Furthermore, microwave systems have side- and back lobes radiating away from the intended direction of transmission that can be intercepted too. Finally, if an attacker is close enough to the source, even the reflected energy from buildings can be used to intercept the signal.

Figure 3: Geometry of an FSO system vs. a microwave link. The microwave link has a much wider spread than FSO, which makes eavesdropping and jamming easier.

Laser beams in FSO are so narrow and focused that they do not have to deal with these issues. At 1km, a typical laser beam only spreads out about 2 meters, and at 5km, only about 5 meters. There are no side and back lobes to worry about and no near-zone reflections. The beam is so narrow that intercepting the transmission becomes an enormous challenge. An intruder would have to get within inches of a terminal or the line of sight, making it easier to get discovered. To complicate things further, the intruder’s terminal would also need to be very well aligned to pick up enough of a signal.

Using Highly-Integrated Transceivers in Free Space Optics

Even though fiber optical communications drove the push for smaller and more efficient optical transceivers, this progress also has a beneficial impact on FSO. As we have explained in previous articles, optical transmission systems have been miniaturized from big, expensive line cards to small, affordable pluggables the size of a large USB stick. These compact transceivers with highly integrated optics and electronics have shorter interconnections, fewer losses, and more elements per chip area. These features all led to a reduced power consumption over the last decade. At EFFECT Photonics, we achieve even further efficiency gains by an optical System-On-Chip (SoC) that integrates all photonic functions on a single chip, including lasers and amplifiers.

Figure 4: Diagram of an FSO system connected to an EFFECT Photonics 10G SFP+ pluggable transceiver via optical fiber.

FSO systems can now take advantage of affordable, low-power transceivers to transmit and receive laser signals in the air. For example, a transceiver based on an optical SoC can output a higher power into the FSO system. By using this higher laser power, the FSO does not need to amplify the signal so much before transmitting it, improving its noise profile. Furthermore, this benefit happens with both direct detect and coherent transceivers. This is a key reason why Aircision has partnered up with EFFECT Photonics to create both direct detect and coherent free-space optical systems, since the startup ultimately aims to reach transmission speeds of 100 Gbps over the air.

Takeaways

FSO has moved from the domain of science fiction to a practical technology that now deserves a place in access networks. FSO can deliver a wireless access solution that can be deployed quickly and with more bandwidth capacity, security features, and less power consumption than traditional point-to-point microwave links. Furthermore, since it does not use the RF spectrum, it is unnecessary to secure spectrum licenses. Affordable direct detect and coherent transceivers based on SoC can further improve the quality and affordability of FSO transmission.

Tags: access networks, adaptive optics, affordable, capacity, coherent, cost-effective, deployments, free space optics, integration, license, miniaturized, photonic integration, Photonics, pluggable, power consumption, private network links, quick deployments, radio spectrum, remote communities, security, SFP, signal processing, turbulence

The Light Path to a Coherent Cloud Edge Banner

Insights

May 25, 2022

Improving Edge Computing with Coherent Optical Systems on Chip

Smaller data centers placed locally have the potential to minimize latency, overcome inconsistent connections, and…

Smaller data centers placed locally have the potential to minimize latency, overcome inconsistent connections, and store and compute data closer to the end-user. These benefits are causing the global market for edge data centers to explode, with PWC predicting that it will nearly triple from $4 billion in 2017 to $13.5 billion in 2024. Cloud-native applications are driving the construction of edge infrastructure and services. However, they cannot distribute their processing capabilities without considerable investments in real estate, infrastructure deployment, and management.

This situation leads to hyperscalers cooperating with telecom operators to install their servers in the existing carrier infrastructure. For example, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is implementing edge technology in carrier networks and company premises (e.g., AWS Wavelength, AWS Outposts). Google and Microsoft have strategies and products that are very similar. In this context, edge computing poses a few problems for telecom providers too. They must manage hundreds or thousands of new nodes that will be hard to control and maintain.

At EFFECT Photonics, we believe that coherent pluggables with an optical System-on-Chip (SoC) can become vital in addressing these datacom and telecom sector needs and enabling a new generation of distributed data center architectures. Combining the optical SoCs with reconfigurable DSPs and modern network orchestration and automation software will be a key to deploying edge data centers.

Edge data centers are a performance and sustainability imperative

Various trends are driving the rise of the edge cloud:

5G technology and the Internet of Things (IoT): These mobile networks and sensor networks need low-cost computing resources closer to the user to reduce latency and better manage the higher density of connections and data.
Content delivery networks (CDNs): The popularity of CDN services continues to grow, and most web traffic today is served through CDNs, especially for major sites like Facebook, Netflix, and Amazon. By using content delivery servers that are more geographically distributed and closer to the edge and the end user, websites can reduce latency, load times, and bandwidth costs as well as increasing content availability and redundancy.
Software-defined networks (SDN) and Network function virtualization (NFV). The increased use of SDNs and NFV requires more cloud software processing.
Augment and virtual reality applications (AR/VR): Edge data centers can reduce the streaming latency and improve the performance of AR/VR applications.

Several of these applications require lower latencies than before, and centralized cloud computing cannot deliver those data packets quickly enough. As shown in Table 1, a data center on a town or suburb aggregation point could halve the latency compared to a centralized hyperscale data center. Enterprises with their own data center on-premises can reduce latencies by 12 to 30 times compared to hyperscale data centers.

Type of Edge		Data center	Location	Number of DCs per 10M people	Average Latency	Size
On-premises edge		Enterprise site	Businesses	NA	2-5 ms	1 rack max
Network (Mobile)	Tower edge	Tower	Nationwide	3000	10 ms	2 rack max
	Outer edge	Aggrega- tion points	Town	150	30 ms	2-6 rack max
	Inner edge	Core	Major city	10	40 ms	10+ rack max
Regional edge		Regional	Major city	100	50 ms	100+ racks
Not edge		Hyperscale	State/ national	1	60+ ms	5000+ racks

Table 1: Types of edge data centers and their characteristics. Source: STL Partners

Cisco estimates that 85 zettabytes of useful raw data were created in 2021, but only 21 zettabytes were stored and processed in data centers. Edge data centers can help close this gap. For example, industries or cities can use edge data centers to aggregate all the data from their sensors. Instead of sending all this raw sensor data to the core cloud, the edge cloud can process it locally and turn it into a handful of performance indicators. The edge cloud can then relay these indicators to the core, which requires a much lower bandwidth than sending the raw data.

Figure 1 Global data center traffic vs. useable data created per year. Graphic sourced from Cisco Global Cloud Index.

Edge data centers therefore allow more sensor data to be aggregated and processed to make systems worldwide smarter and more efficient. The ultimate goal is to create entire “smart cities” that use this sensor data to benefit their inhabitants, businesses, and the environment. Everything from transport networks to water supply and lightning could be improved if we have more sensor data available in the cloud to optimize these processes. Distributing data centers is also vital for future data center architectures. While centralizing processing in hyper-scale data centers made them more energy-efficient, the power grid often limits the potential location of new hyperscale data centers. Thus, the industry may have to take a few steps back and decentralize data processing capacity to cope with the strain of data center clusters on power grids. For example, data centers can be relocated to areas where spare power capacity is available, preferably from nearby renewable energy sources. EFFECT Photonics envisions a system of datacentres with branches in different geographical areas, where data storage and processing are assigned based on local and temporal availability of renewable (wind-, solar-) energy and total energy demand in the area.

Figure 2: High-speed fiber-optic connections allow data processing and storage to move to locations where excess (green) energy is available. If power is needed for other purposes, such as charging electric vehicles, data can be moved elsewhere

Coherent technology simplifies the scaling of edge data center interconnects

As edge data center interconnects became more common, the issue of how to interconnect them became more prominent. Direct detect technology had been the standard in the short-reach data center interconnects. However, reaching the distances greater than 50km and bandwidths over 100Gbps required for modern edge data center interconnects required external amplifiers and dispersion compensators that increased the complexity of network operations. At the same time, advances in electronic and photonic integration allowed longer reach coherent technology to be miniaturized into QSFP-DD and OSFP form factors. This progress allowed the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) to create the 400ZR and ZR+ standards for 400G DWDM pluggable modules. With small enough modules to pack a router faceplate densely, the datacom sector could profit from a 400ZR solution for high-capacity data center interconnects of up to 80km. If needed, extended reach 400ZR+ pluggables can cover several hundreds of kilometers. Cignal AI forecasts that 400ZR shipments will dominate in the edge applications, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Forecast of 100G port equivalents shipped for edge applications. These shipments are overwhelmingly 400ZR standard technology. Source: Cignal AI Transport Applications Report Q42021.

Further improvements in integration can further boost the reach and efficiency of coherent transceivers. For example, by integrating all photonic functions on a single chip, including lasers and optical amplifiers, EFFECT Photonics’ optical System-On-Chip (SoC) technology can achieve higher transmit power levels and longer distances while keeping the smaller QSFP-DD form factor, power consumption, and cost.

Maximizing Edge Computing with Automation

With the rise of edge data centers, telecom providers must manage hundreds or thousands of new nodes that will be hard to control and maintain. Furthermore, providers also need a flexible network with pay-as-you-go scalability that can handle future capacity needs. Fortunately, several new technologies are enabling this scalable and automated network management.

First of all, the rise of self-tuning algorithms has made the installation of new pluggables easier than ever. They eliminate additional installation tasks such as manual tuning and record verification. They are host-agnostic, can plug into any third-party host equipment, and scale as you grow. Standardization also allows modules from different vendors to communicate with each other, avoiding compatibility issues and simplifying upgrade choices. The communication channels used for self-tuning algorithms can also be used for remote diagnostics and management, such as the case of EFFECT Photonics NarroWave technology.

Automation potential improves further by combining artificial intelligence with the software-defined networks (SDNs) framework that virtualizes and centralizes network functions. This creates an automated and centralized management layer that can allocate resources efficiently and dynamically. For example, AI in network management will become a significant factor in reducing the energy consumption of future telecom networks.

Figure 2: Comparing a traditional network approach (left) with an SDN/NFC approach (right).

Future smart transceivers with reconfigurable digital signal processors (DSPs) can give the AI-controlled management layer even more degrees of freedom to optimize the network. These smart transceivers will relay more device information for diagnosis, and depending on the management layer instructions, they can change their coding schemes to adapt to different network requirements

Takeaways

Cloud-native applications require edge data centers with lower latency, and that better fit the existing power grid. However, their implementation came with the challenges of more data center interconnects and a massive increase in nodes to manage. Fortunately, coherent pluggables with self-tuning can play a vital role in addressing these datacom and telecom sector challenges and enabling a new generation of distributed data center architectures. Combining these pluggables with modern network orchestration and automation software will boost the deployment of edge data centers. EFFECT Photonics believes that with these automation technologies (self-tuning, SDNs, AI), we can reach the goal of a self-managed, zero-touch automated network that can handle the massive scale-up required for 5G networks and edge computing.

Tags: 400ZR, artificial intelligence, cloud, coherent, computing, data centers, DSP, edge, edge data centers, infrastructure, latency, network, network edge, operators, optical system-on-chip, pluggables, self-tuning, services

Insights

May 4, 2022

The Growing Market for Tunable Lasers

The world is moving towards tunability. The combination of tunable lasers and dense wavelength division…

The world is moving towards tunability. The combination of tunable lasers and dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) allows datacom and telecom industries to expand their network capacity without increasing their existing fiber infrastructure. Furthermore, the miniaturization of coherent technology into pluggable transceiver modules has finally enabled the widespread implementation of IP over DWDM solutions.

Self-tuning algorithms have also made DWDM solutions more widespread by simplifying their installation and maintenance. Hence, many application cases—metro transport, data center interconnects, and even future access networks—are moving towards coherent tunable pluggables. The market for coherent tunable transceivers will explode in the coming years, with LightCounting estimating that annual sales will double by 2026. Telecom carriers and especially data center providers will drive the market demand, upgrading their optical networks with 400G, 600G, and 800G pluggable transceiver modules that will become the new industry standards.

Figure 1: Market forecast for coherent DWDM modules by data rate. Source: LightCounting Market Forecast Report (April 2021)

Same Laser Performance, Smaller Package

As the industry moves towards packing more and more transceivers on a single router faceplate, tunable lasers need to maintain performance and power while moving to smaller footprints and lower power consumption and cost. Due to the faceplate density requirements for data center applications, transceiver power consumption is arguably the most critical factor in this use case.

In fact, power consumption is the main obstacle preventing pluggables from becoming a viable solution for a future upgrade to Terabit speeds. Since lasers are the second biggest power consumers in the transceiver module, laser manufacturers faced a paradoxical task. They must manufacture laser units that are small and energy-efficient enough to fit QSFP-DD and OSFP pluggable form factors while maintaining the laser performance. Fortunately, these ambitious spec targets became possible thanks to improved photonic integration technology.

The original 2011 ITLA standard from the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) was 74mm long by 30.5mm wide. By 2015, most tunable lasers shipped in a micro-ITLA form factor that cut the original ITLA footprint in half. In 2021, the nano-ITLA form factor designed for QSFP-DD and OSFP modules has once again cut the micro-ITLA footprint almost in half. The QSFP-DD modules that house the full transceiver are smaller (78mm by 20mm) than the original ITLA form factor. Stunningly, tunable laser manufacturers achieved this size reduction without impacting laser purity and power.

Figure 2: Evolution of tunable laser form factors for coherent optics (2011-2021). Figure from Laser Focus World.

Versatile Laser Developers for Different Use Cases

The different telecom and datacom applications will have different requirements for their tunable lasers. Premium coherent systems used for submarine and ultra-long-haul require best-in-class lasers with the highest power output and purity. On the other hand, metro transport and data center interconnect applications do not need the highest possible laser quality, but they need small devices with lower power consumption to fit router faceplates. Meanwhile, the access network space looks for lower-cost components that are also temperature hardened.

Table 1: Summary of different use cases for high-performance tunable lasers.

These varied use cases provide laser developers with ample opportunities and market niches to provide fit-for-purpose solutions for. For example, a laser module can be set to run at a higher voltage to provide higher output power and reach for premium long-haul applications. On the other hand, tuning the laser to a lower voltage would enable a more energy-efficient operation that could serve more lenient, shorter-reach use cases (links < 250km), such as data center interconnects.

An Independent Player in Times of Consolidation

With the increasing demand for coherent transceivers, many companies have performed acquisitions and mergers that allow them to develop transceiver components internally and thus secure their supply. LightCounting forecasts show that while this consolidation will decrease the sales of modulator and receiver components, the demand for tunable lasers will continue to grow. The forecast expects the tunable laser market for the transceiver to reach a size of $400M in 2026.

Figure 3: Global Market sales for high-performance modulators and receivers as well as tunable lasers. (Historical Data and Forecast). Source: LightCounting Market Forecast Report (April 2021)

We can dive deeper into the data to find the forces that drive the steady growth of the laser market. As shown in Figure 4, the next five years will likely see explosive growth in the demand for high-purity, high-power lasers. The forecast predicts that the shipments of such laser units will increase from roughly half a million in 2022 to 1.4 million in 2026 due to the growth of 400G and 800G transceiver upgrades. However, the industry consolidation will make it harder for component and equipment manufacturers to source lasers from independent vendors for their transceivers.

Figure 4: Units sold in the global market for Tunable Lasers components: legacy, high-purity low-power, and high-purity high-power (Historical Data and Forecast). Source: LightCounting Market Forecast Report (April 2021)

This data indicates that the market needs more independent vendors to provide high-performance ITLA components that adapt to different datacom or telecom provider needs. Following these trends, at EFFECT Photonics, we are not only developing the capabilities to provide a complete coherent transceiver solution but also the nano-ITLA units needed by other vendors.

Takeaways

The world is moving towards tunability. As telecom and datacom industries seek to expand their network capacity without increasing their fiber infrastructure, the sales tunable transceivers will explode in the coming years. These transceivers need tunable lasers with smaller sizes and lower power consumption than ever. Fortunately, the advances in photonic integration are managing to fulfill these laser requirements, leading to the new nano-ITLA module standards. However, even though component and equipment vendors need these tunable lasers for their next-gen transceivers, the industry consolidation can affect their supply. This situation presents an opportunity for new independent vendors to supply nano-ITLA units to this growing market.

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Tags: acquisition, coherent, coherent communication systems, coherent optical module vendor, coherent technology stack, datacenters, datacom, DWDM, high-performance, hyperscalers, independent, Integrated Photonics, lasers, noise, OEM, optical engine, optical transceivers, performance, photonic integration, Photonics, pluggables, power consumption, reach, self-tuning, Telecom, telecom carriers, Transceivers, tunable, tunable laser, tuneability, VARs, versatile

Insights

April 28, 2022

Co-Designing Optics and Electronics for Versatile and Green Transceivers

Network and data center operators need fast and affordable pluggable transceivers that perform well enough…

Network and data center operators need fast and affordable pluggable transceivers that perform well enough to cover a wide range of link lengths. However, power consumption and thermal management are the big obstacles in the roadmap to scale high-speed transceivers into Terabit speeds.

Over the last two decades, power ratings for pluggable modules have increased as we moved from direct detection to more power-hungry coherent transmission: from 2W for SFP modules to 3.5 W for QSFP modules and now to 14W for QSSFP-DD and 21.1W for OSFP form factors. Rockley Photonics researchers estimate that a future electronic switch filled with 800G modules would draw around 1 kW of power just for the optical modules.

Around 50% of a coherent transceiver’s power consumption goes into the digital signal processing (DSP) chip that also performs the functions of clock data recovery (CDR), optical-electrical gear-boxing, and lane switching. Scaling to higher bandwidths leads to even more losses and energy consumption from the DSP chip and its radiofrequency (RF) interconnects with the optical engine.

Figure 1: Normalized power breakdown of the internal blocks of a 400ZR pluggable module. Although this breakdown may vary a bit among different vendors, the authors find it to be generally true for various DSP-based modules, both IM-DD and coherent. Source: R. Nagarajan et al., IEEE JLT (2021)

Thus, a great incentive exists to optimize the interface between the module’s DSP chip and the optical engine to make the transceiver more energy efficient. This need for optimization and efficiency makes co-designing the optical and electronic systems of the transceiver more important than ever.

Co-Designing the Optimal DSP

Coherent DSPs are already application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), but they could fit their respective optical engines and use cases even more tightly. Transceiver developers often source their DSP, laser, and optical engine from different suppliers, so all these chips are designed separately from each other. This setup reduces the time to market and simplifies the research and design processes but comes with trade-offs in performance and power consumption.

In such cases, the DSP is like a Swiss army knife: a jack of all trades designed for different kinds of PIC but a master of none. For example, many 400ZR+ transceivers used for telecom metro and long-haul applications are using the same DSPs as 400ZR transceivers used for much shorter data center interconnects. Given the ever-increasing demand for capacity and the need for sustainability both as financial and social responsibility, transceiver developers are increasingly in need of a steak knife rather than a Swiss army knife.

Co-designing the DSP chip alongside the photonic integrated circuit (PIC) can lead to a much better fit between these components. A co-design approach helps identify in greater detail the trade-offs between various parameters in the DSP and PIC and thus improve system-level performance optimization. A DSP optimized for a specific optical engine and application could save up to a couple of Watts of power compared to the usual transceiver and DSP designs.

Figure 2: Simplified diagram of the building blocks of a coherent QSFP-DD transceiver. Original diagram source: Infinera

Co-designing DSP Interfaces for Power Efficiency

Since the optical engine and DSP operate with signals of differing intensities, they need some analog electronic components to “talk” to each other. On the transmit side, the electronic driver block takes signals from the DSP, converts them to a higher voltage, and drives the optical engine. On the receive side, a trans-impedance amplifier (TIA) block will boost the weak signal captured by the optical detector so that the DSP can more easily process it. This signal power conversion overhead constitutes roughly 10-15% of transceiver power consumption, as shown in Figure 1.

Co-designing the DSP and PIC could enable ways to decrease this power conversion overhead. For example, the modulator of the optical engine could be designed to run at a lower voltage that is more compatible with the signal output of the DSP. This way, the DSP could drive the optical engine directly without the need for the analog electronic driver. Such a setup could save roughly two watts of power consumption!

Figure-dac grey blocks — Figure 3: Simplified diagram of the building blocks of a coherent QSFP-DD transceiver in which the DSP drives the optical engine directly from its digital-to-analog converter (DAC). This setup can achieve a power consumption improvement of 10-15%.

Co-design is also vital to optimize the transceiver layout floorplan. This plan must consider the power dissipation of all transceiver building blocks to avoid hot spots and thermal interference from the DSP to the highly thermally sensitive PIC. The positioning of all bond pads and interfaces is also very important for signal and power integrity, requiring a co-design with the package and substrate.

During this floorplan development, the RF interconnections between the DSP and PIC can be made as short as possible. These optimized RF interconnects reduce the optical and thermal losses in the transceiver package and will reduce the power consumption of the analog electronic driver and amplifier.

Co-Designing Fit-For-Purpose DSPs and PICs

As shown in Figure 4, a DSP chip contains a sequence of processing blocks that compensate for different transmission issues in the fiber and then recover, decode, and error-correct the data streams. Different applications might require slightly different layouts of the DSP or might not need some processing blocks.

Figure 4: Simplified diagram of the processing blocks of a DSP chip.

For example, full DSP compensation might be required for long links that span several hundreds of kilometers, but a shorter link might not require all the DSP functions. In these cases, a transceiver could turn off or reduce certain DSP functions—such as chromatic dispersion compensation—to save power. These power-saving features could be particularly useful for the cases of shorter data center interconnect links (DCI). On the optical engine side, the laser might not require a high power to transmit over this shorter DCI link so the amplifier functions could shut down. Co-designing the DSP and PIC allows a transceiver developer to mix and match these different energy-saving features to achieve the lowest possible power for a specific application.

Takeaways

Power consumption has become the big barrier that prevents pluggable transceivers from scaling up to 800G and Terabit speeds. Overcoming this barrier requires a tighter fit between the optics and electronics of the transceiver, especially when it comes to the interface between the optical engine and the electronic DSP. By co-designing the optical engine and the electronic DSP, transceiver developers could avoid the need for an external electrical driver and reduce transceiver power consumption by 10-15%. A co-design approach can also make it easier to design fit-for-purpose transceivers that implement power-saving features tailored to specific application cases.

The benefits of this co-design approach led EFFECT Photonics to incorporate talent and intellectual property from Viasat’s Coherent DSP team. With this merger, EFFECT Photonics aims to co-design our Optical System-On-Chip with the DSP to develop fit-for-purpose transceivers that are more energy-efficient than ever before.

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Tags: acquisition, coherent, coherent communication systems, coherent optical module vendor, DSP, FEC, forward error correction, green, green transceivers, high vertical integration, independent coherent optical module vendor, Integrated Photonics, optical digital signal processing, optical engine, optical transceivers, photonic integration, Photonics, pluggables, Transceivers, tunable laser, tuneability

Reconfigurable DSPs for Versatile Pluggables

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April 20, 2022

Reconfigurable DSPs for Versatile Pluggables

Carriers must solve the dilemma of how to use small and affordable coherent pluggables while…

Carriers must solve the dilemma of how to use small and affordable coherent pluggables while still having enough performance and reach to cover most of their network links. At EFFECT Photonics, we believe coherent pluggables with an optical System-on-Chip (SoC) can play a vital role in solving this carrier’s dilemma and simplifying network upgrades. Meanwhile, these new coherent pluggables could also enable longer, and higher-capacity data center interconnects for more sustainable data center architectures.

Another big factor in making networks more affordable and sustainable is software-defined networks (SDNs) and automation. SDNs enable the network function virtualization (NFV), which allows operators to implement more functions to manage and orchestrate the network. Operators will reap even further benefits by using an artificial intelligence (AI) management and orchestration layer with the SDN/NFV layer, as shown in the figure below.

Figure 1: Example of a carrier network with different applications (mobile, home, office) automated via NFV control and AI management.

However, creating a fully automated network that can handle the ever-increasing amount of data and connected devices requires us to go beyond just adjusting the higher network layers. The orchestration and management software should also interface with the physical layer of the network, and that requires smart optical pluggable that adapt to varying network requirements. These requirements place additional burdens on digital signal processors (DSPs). DSPs are a vital component of coherent communication systems, as they perform the coding, decoding, and error corrections on the optical signal. Fortunately, the advances in electronic integration and standards make it so that a versatile coherent pluggable can benefit from an equally versatile and reconfigurable DSP.

Future Automated Networks Must Also Work on the Physical Layer

Telecom and datacom providers who want to become market leaders must scale up while also learning to allocate their existing network resources most efficiently and dynamically. SDNs can help achieve this efficient, dynamic network management. In a nutshell, the SDN paradigm separates the switching hardware from the software, allowing operators to virtualize network functions in a single centralized controller unit. This centralized management and orchestration (MANO) layer can implement network functions that the switches do not, allowing network operators to allocate network resources more intelligently and dynamically. This added flexibility and optimization will improve network outcomes for operators.

However, the upcoming 5G networks will consist of a massive number of devices, software applications, and technologies. EFFECT Photonics believes that handling all these new devices and use cases will require self-managed, zero-touch automated networks. Realizing this full network automation requires two additional components alongside SDN and NFV:

Artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms for complete network automation: For example, AI in network management will become a significant factor in reducing the energy consumption of future telecom networks.
Sensor and control data flow across all OSI model layers, including the physical layer: As networks get bigger and more complex, the management and orchestration (MANO) software needs more degrees of freedom and knobs to adjust. Next-generation MANO software needs to adjust and optimize both the physical and network layers to fit the network best.

Achieving the second goal requires smart optical equipment and components that can be diagnosed and managed remotely from the MANO layer. This context is where smart pluggable transceivers with reconfigurable DSPs come into play.

The Importance of Standardized Error Correction

Forward error correction (FEC) implemented by DSPs has become a vital component of coherent communication systems. FEC makes the coherent link much more tolerant to noise than a direct detect system and enables much longer reach and higher capacity. Thanks to FEC, coherent links can handle bit error rates that are literally a million times higher than a typical direct detect link. In other words, FEC algorithms allow the DSP to enhance the link performance without changing the hardware. This enhancement is analogous to imaging cameras: image processing algorithms allow the lenses inside your phone camera to produce a higher-quality image.

Figure 1 Simplified diagram of a network link with Forward Error Correction (FEC). — Figure 3: Simplified diagram of a network link with forward error correction (FEC). The FEC encoder adds a series of redundant bits (called overhead) to the transmitted data stream. The receiver can use this overhead to check for errors without asking the transmitter to resend the data.

When coherent transmission emerged, all FEC algorithms were proprietary. Equipment and component manufacturers closely guarded their FEC because it provided a critical competitive advantage. Therefore, coherent transceivers from different vendors could not operate with each other, and a single vendor had to be used for the entire network deployment. However, vendors had to adapt with data center providers pushing disaggregation deeper into communication networks. Their coherent transceivers needed to become interoperable, so FEC algorithms needed standardization. The OIF 400ZR standard for data center interconnects uses a public algorithm called concatenated FEC (CFEC). In contrast, some 400ZR+ MSA standards use open FEC (oFEC), which provides a more extended reach at the cost of a bit more bandwidth and energy consumption. For the longest possible link lengths (500+ kilometers), proprietary FECs become necessary for 400G transmission. Still, at least the public FEC standards have achieved interoperability for a large segment of the 400G transceiver market.

A Smart DSP to Rule All Network Links

A smart pluggable transceiver that can adapt to all the applications we have mentioned before—data centers, carrier networks, SDNs—requires an equally smart and versatile DSP. It must be a DSP that can be reconfigured via software to adapt to different network conditions and use cases. For example, a smart DSP could switch among different FEC algorithms to adapt to network performance and use cases. For example, let’s look at the case of upgrading a long metro link of 650km running at 100 Gbps with open FEC. The operator needs to increase that link capacity to 400 Gbps, but open FEC could struggle to provide the necessary link performance. However, if the DSP can be reconfigured to use a proprietary FEC standard, the transceiver will be able to handle this upgraded link.

	400ZR	Open ZR+	Proprietary Long Haul
Target Application	Edge data center interconnect	Metro, Regional data center interconnect	Long-Haul Carrier
Target Reach @ 400G	120km	500km	1000 km
Form Factor	QSFP-DD/OSFP	QSFP-DD/OSFP	QSFP-DD/OSFP
FEC	CFEC	oFEC	Proprietary
Standards / MSA	OIF	OpenZR+ MSA	Proprietary

Table 1: Summary of different use cases and standards for a 400G pluggable transceiver.

Reconfigurable DSPs can also be beneficial to auto-configure links to deal with specific network conditions, especially in brownfield links. For example, the DSP can be reconfigured to transmit at a higher baud rate if the link has a good quality fiber. However, the DSP could be reconfigured to scale down the baud rate to avoid bit errors if the fiber quality is poor. If the smart pluggable detects that the fiber length is relatively short, it could scale down the laser transmitter power or the DSP power consumption to save energy.

Takeaways

A versatile pluggable that can handle different use cases – data center links, long metro links, and dynamic management and orchestration layers – must have the ability to use different coding and error coding schemes and adapt to different network requirements. The DSP must be equally versatile and switch among several operating modes – 400ZR, 400ZR+, proprietary – and error correction methods – cFEC, oFEC, and proprietary. Together with a programmable optical system on chip, the DSP can not just add software corrections but also make optical hardware changes (output power, turn amplifiers on/off) to adapt to different noise scenarios. Through these adjustments, the next generation of pluggable transceivers will be able to handle all the telecom carrier and data center use cases we can throw at it.

'National Coalition for Sustainable Digitalization' calls on the government to take an integrated approach to sustainable digitalization

Press Releases

April 14, 2022

PhotonDelta secures €1.1 billion to usher in a new generation of semiconductor technology.

Eindhoven, The Netherlands PhotonDelta, a cross-border ecosystem of photonic chip technology organizations, has secured €…

Capital from the Netherland’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy and other organizations will be used to build 200 startups, scale up production, create new applications for photonic chips and develop infrastructure and talent
Photonic chips enable the creation of devices that are substantially faster, cheaper to produce, and use considerably less electricity
Development of photonic tech will tackle societal challenges such as sustainability, create a new European industry, and open the door to a huge range of new applications including quantum computing

Eindhoven, The Netherlands

PhotonDelta, a cross-border ecosystem of photonic chip technology organizations, has secured € 1.1 billion in public and private investment to transform the Netherlands into the leader of the next generation of semiconductors.

The investment includes €470 million of funding obtained through the National Growth Fund (Nationaal Groeifonds), while the rest is co-invested by various partners and stakeholders. It is part of the Dutch Government’s national plan to cement and expand the country’s position as a world leader in integrated photonics.

The program will run for six years and will enable PhotonDelta and its partners to further invest in photonic startups and scaleups, expand production and research facilities, attract and train talent, drive adoption, and develop a world-class design library. By 2030, PhotonDelta aims to have created an ecosystem with hundreds of companies, serving customers worldwide and a wafer production capacity of 100,000+ per year.

Photonics uses photons (light) to transfer information. Photonic chips, also called photonic integrated circuits (PICs), integrate photonic functions into microchips to create smaller, faster and more energy-efficient devices. PICs can process and transmit data much more effectively than their electronic counterparts. Just like with traditional chips, the production process is carried out using automatic wafer-scale technology. This allows the chips to be mass-produced, reducing costs.

Crucially, PICs can overcome the expected limit to Moore’s Law and will also help tackle energy sustainability issues. PICs are currently used in the data and telecom industry to reduce the energy consumption per bit and increase speeds. With data and internet use expected to be around 10% of global electricity consumption by 2027, PICs provide a powerful way to limit the impact on the climate. Photonic circuits will also soon play an important role for innovative sensors that can be mass-produced, leading to earlier diagnostics of diseases, safe autonomous vehicles and infrastructure, and more efficient food production.

This investment is a game-changer. It will make the Netherlands the home of the next generation of semiconductors which will have a profound impact on the whole European tech industry.

The ongoing chip shortage highlights the pressing need for Europe to create its own production capabilities for strategic technologies. We will now be able to support hundreds of startups, researchers, producers and innovators to boost this industry that will be as impactful as the introduction of microelectronics a few decades ago.

The Netherlands is considered a pioneer in the development of PIC technology, and thanks to the continuous support from the Dutch government, we have been able to build a full supply-chain around it that is globally recognized as a hotspot for photonic integration.

Photonic chips are one of the most important technological breakthroughs of the last decade. Not only do they allow for the creation of devices that are faster, cheaper, more powerful and greener – they also enable radical new innovations like affordable point-of-care diagnostics or quantum computing to become a reality.

Ewit Roos, CEO at PhotonDelta

EFFECT Photonics is honored to be part of the allocation of the National Growth Fund. It is an exciting time for our industry and this kind of on-going support and funding from the Dutch government will bring the maturity and scalability of the Dutch photonics eco-system to the next level and allow us to compete on truly global scale.

For EFFECT Photonics this means that that we will be able to build on our ambition to make photonics simpler, more accessible, and affordable as we further the development of our next generation coherent solutions including the integration of our recently acquired DSP capabilities.

Our thanks go to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate for making this possible and to PhotonDelta for their guidance, organization, and coordination. We very much look forward to working together in the coming months and years to further drive innovations and value in our industry.
Boudewijn Docter at President EFFECT Photonic

The PhotonDelta proposal has been submitted by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs & Climate Policy in close collaboration with Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), University of Twente (UT), Delft University of Technology (TUD), Holst Centre, TNO, IMEC, PITC, CITC, OnePlanet, SMART Photonics, LioniX International, EFFECT Photonics, MantiSpectra, PhotonFirst, PHIX, and BRIGHT Photonics.

The PhotonDelta ecosystem currently consists of 26 companies, 11 technology partners and 12 R&D partners. The organization is part of a consortium which has jointly invested €171 million in promising photonics companies including SMART Photonics, PhotonFirst, Surfix, MicroAlign, Solmates and EFFECT Photonics.

ENDS

Notes to Editor

*Conditions include:

Strategic partnership with a foundry agreed
Research activity connected with applications of technology
Ongoing evaluation of PhotonDelta’s ecosystem

Example applications of PICs:

Data & Telecoms: The biggest challenge within this domain is the high energy consumption of data infrastructure. Without any savings made, the share of data and internet use is expected to be around 10% of global electricity consumption by 2027. This includes energy consumption by end-users on the one hand and data centers on the other. 5G, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence will further accelerate this. Photonics provides gains in speed, weight, and energy consumption.

Healthcare: The development of mobile, wearable photonic devices (combined with advanced biosensors for direct point-of-care diagnostics and treatment that measure the medical condition and well-being of the wearer) can contribute to early detection and diagnosis of diseases, as well as an earlier and more targeted treatment. Photonics will eliminate the need for a visit to the hospital for many treatments or consultations.

Mobility: The biggest challenge in automotive in the near future lies in the availability of affordable sensors to enable autonomous driving at various stages. With the advantages of photonic chips (weight, speed, cost), the possibilities for self-driving transport are increasing. This has positive implications for road safety and lost travel time is made available again. Photonics can also mean a lot for battery management in electric vehicles and the control of traditional cars. For the aircraft industry, the emphasis is on sensor systems.

AgriFood: To feed a world population that is expected to reach 10 billion by 2050, a drastic increase in food production is needed. But this must be done in a sustainable way: without excess nitrogen or excess CO2 emissions and preferably also in a way in which animal proteins have made way for vegetable proteins. In addition, food safety is an important precondition. The solution lies in precision agriculture, something in which photonics can play a major role. Sensor systems that run on photonics ensure that all requirements regarding safety, health, and sustainability can be met.

Full list of PhotonDelta partners (47):

Core partners (supply-chain) 25:
LioniX International
BRIGHT Photonics
SMART Photonics
PHIX
PhotonFirst
Aixscale Photonics
EFFECT Photonics
Pilot Photonics
QuiX Quantum
Delta Diagnostics
Surfix Diagnostics
Nostics
EFI Instruments
Amazec
VTEC lasers & sensors
MantiSpectra
OmmatidiaLidar
Demcon
Memscan
Neuruno
Deloq
Fuqon
Tarucca
Aircision

Suppliers (technology partners) 11:
Bruco
ASML
Aixtron
Solmates
Chip Integration Technology Center (CITC) Etteplan
Tyndall
Salland Engineering
TNO
IMS
MicroAlign

R&D partners (12):
Photonic Integration Technology Center (PITC)
University of Twente
Eindhoven University of Technology
TU Delft
Imec
Holst Centre
OnePlanet
Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology
TNO
Fraunhofer HHI
MIT
HighTech XL

Technical information on photonics tech: https://www.photondelta.com/how-it-works/

More detail on how the investments will be used:

The goal is for accelerated, far-reaching further development of the photonics ecosystem and industrial development. Spread over 3 axes:

Accelerated industrialization: scaling up and optimizing production processes, new factories and integration with other platforms, such as CMOS or SiPh via ChipLet technology
Application technology: developing new applications via building blocks to meet major societal (and industrial) challenges
Ecosystem development: strengthening the ecosystem with targeted investments in weak spots: support startups, scale-ups, campus development, talent development, shared infrastructure for development, access for new entrants

About PhotonDelta

PhotonDelta is an ecosystem that researches, designs, develops, and manufactures solutions with integrated photonics technology. Connecting pioneers in the field with investors, and viable markets, PhotonDelta helps to take the industry forward with funding, investments and R&D roadmaps. PhotonDelta is located in the Netherlands but connects and collaborates throughout Europe. www.photondelta.com

Background PhotonDelta organization

In December 2018, a covenant was signed in which Dutch companies, knowledge institutions and governments pool a total of € 236 million in cash and in-kind resources, with the aim of exploiting the leading knowledge position in the field of integrated photonics and thus creating a strong economic position in the world.

The PhotonDelta partners together form a cohesive and co-operative industrial cluster. The ambitions and strategy for 2019-2026 are laid down in the PhotonDelta National Plan of the Dutch government, which is structured along four strategic pillars. The PhotonDelta Foundation is the implementing organization for this plan and started its activities on 1 January 2019.

Tags: coherent, Development, Dutch Government, innovation, Ministry of Economics & Climate, National Growth Fund, PhotonDelta, start up

Press Releases

March 8, 2022

EFFECT Photonics Acquires Coherent Optical Digital Signal Processing Business from Viasat

EFFECT Photonics to Become the Most Highly Vertically Integrated, Independent Coherent Optical Module Vendor San…

EFFECT Photonics to Become the Most Highly Vertically Integrated, Independent Coherent Optical Module Vendor

San Diego, United States America – Today at OFC (Optical Fiber Conference) 2022, EFFECT Photonics, a leading provider of highly integrated optical communication products is announcing that it signed a definitive agreement to acquire coherent optical digital signal processing (DSP) and forward error correction (FEC) technology as well as a highly experienced engineering team from global communications company, Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT).

Viasat is a long-established player in DSP and FEC technology. With eight generations of design IP, they have a proven track record of delivering successful field deployments.

From this acquisition, EFFECT Photonics will now own the entire coherent technology stack of all optical functions, including a high-performance tunable laser, together with DSP and FEC. This will enable the Company to deliver on its ambition to make high performance coherent communications solutions widely accessible and affordable. Furthermore, it will enable longer term economic and environmentally sustainable communications due to the ability to deliver high-end performance and reach within a small footprint and with lower power consumption. This opens the way to drive coherent technology into new places, revolutionizing the way the world interconnects.

This transaction is expected to provide the following customer benefits:

EFFECT Photonics will be able to optimize the complete solution for any application addressing both existing challenges and new possibilities
With full ownership of the key optical, DSP and FEC functions, EFFECT Photonics can offer seamless integration, cost efficiency and security of supply
EFFECT Photonics will be an independent vendor able to offer a full portfolio of building blocks such as the tunable laser and DSP, and/or complete solutions, increasing the choice reduced by recent mergers and acquisitions in the industry

EFFECT Photonics has also secured an additional $20M in Series-C funding bringing the total to $63M. Additionally, pursuant to the DSP acquisition agreement, Viasat will be joining EFFECT Photonics’ Supervisory Board and hold a minority interest in the Company.

“This is a significant step in accelerating our ambition to make coherent optical communications ubiquitous and further drive our product portfolio growth. We look forward to welcoming the team of highly skilled and experienced design architects and engineers who will be joining us to drive the development of energy efficient, high performance and affordable coherent solutions.

With all the recent changes in the industry landscape, this means that EFFECT Photonics is the only independent vendor able to deliver both the active optical components and the DSP. This will offer the market more choice and the ability to source superior solutions“
James Regan, CEO EFFECT Photonics.

“Given the trend of the fiber optic communications industry towards consolidation to provide vertically integrated end-to-end solutions, we believe that combining Viasat’s assets and capabilities with the unique integrated photonics capabilities of EFFECT Photonics will create substantially more market opportunities and better products. By investing in this Netherlands-headquartered company, we will also further expand our presence in Europe and be able to partner with EFFECT to bring state-of-the-art integrated photonics to Viasat’s own customers.”
Russell Fuerst, business area leader and vice president, Viasat.

–End of press release–

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 affordable DWDM solutions driven by the soaring demand for high bandwidth connections. EFFECT Photonics is headquartered in The Netherlands, with additional facilities in the UK, the US and Taiwan, and a worldwide network of sales partners. http://www.effectphotonics.com

About Viasat

Viasat is a global communications company that believes everyone and everything in the world can be connected. For more than 35 years, Viasat has helped shape how consumers, businesses, governments and militaries around the world communicate. Today, the Company is developing the ultimate global communications network to power high-quality, secure, affordable, fast connections to impact people’s lives anywhere they are—on the ground, in the air or at sea. To learn more about Viasat, visit: www.viasat.com, go to Viasat’s Corporate Blog, or follow the Company on social media at: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter or YouTube.

Copyright © 2022 EFFECT Photonics. All rights reserved. Viasat, the Viasat logo and the Viasat signal are registered trademarks of Viasat, Inc. All other product or company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Tags: acquisition, coherent, coherent communication systems, coherent optical module vendor, DSP, FEC, forward error correction, high vertical integration, independent coherent optical module vendor, Integrated Photonics, optical digital signal processing, optical engine, tunable laser, Viasat

How To Make a Photonic Integrated Circuit

Insights

January 19, 2022

Leveraging the Power of External Foundries in Photonics

Working with a world-class high-volume foundry makes scaling up from low to high volume as…

Working with a world-class high-volume foundry makes scaling up from low to high volume as easy as putting a purchase order in place. Instead of having to buy equipment, develop processes, and train operators over many years, a fabless photonics developer can leverage foundries who already have these capabilities and knowledge.

Thanks to wafer scale technology, electronics has successfully driven down cost per transistor for many decades. This allowed the world to enjoy chips that every generation became smaller and provided exponentially more computing power for the same amount of money. This scale-up process is how everyone now has a computer processor in their pocket that is millions of times more powerful than the most advanced computers of the 1960s that landed men on the moon.

This progress in electronics integration is a key factor that brought down the size and cost of coherent transceivers, packing more bits than ever into smaller areas. However, photonics has struggled to keep up with electronics, and now the optics dominate the optical transceiver’s cost. If the transceiver cost curve does not continue to decrease, it will be difficult to achieve the goal of making coherent technology more accessible across the entire optical network. This will make it more difficult to provide the services needed by cloud providers and the growing 5G access networks.

As we mentioned in our previous article, photonics manufacturing must move into wafer-scale territory to provide faster, more affordable, and sustainable coherent transmission.

However, most photonic chip developers don’t have human and financial resources to own and operate their own wafer-scale photonic foundries. Fortunately, electronic chip developers have shown a more viable and cost-effective alternative: the fabless model.

A Lower Upfront Investment

Increasing the volume of photonics manufacturing is a big challenge. Some photonic chip developers choose to manufacture their chips in-house within their own fabrication facilities. This approach has some strong advantages, as it gives component manufacturers full control over their production process. By vertically integrating the whole chip design, manufacturing, and testing process within the same company, it’s often easier to try out new changes and innovations to the product.

Figure 1: Simplified value chain diagram of a vertically-integrated optical transceiver developer. The developer handles the PIC design, manufacturing, and packaging

However, this approach has its trade-offs. If a vertically-integrated chip developer wants to scale up in volume, they must make a hefty investment in more equipment and personnel to do so. They must develop new fabrication process which not only need money, but also time to develop and train personnel. Especially in the case of an optical transceiver market that is not as big as that of consumer electronics, it’s hard not to wonder whether that initial investment is cost-effective.

Electronics manufacturing had a similar problem during their 1970s boom, with smaller chip start-ups facing almost insurmountable barriers to enter the market because of the massive capital expenditure (CapEx) required. Electronics solved this problem by moving into what we call a fabless model, with companies designing and selling the chips but outsourcing the manufacturing.

For example, transceiver DSP chip developers design the chip, but then outsource the actual fabrication to a large-volume manufacturing plant (usually called a foundry). This business model works by leveraging the design, research, development, and distribution networks of the fabless company, and the specialized manufacturing skill of the chip foundry.

Figure 2: Simplified value chain diagram of a vertically-integrated optical transceiver developer. The developer handles the PIC design, manufacturing, and packaging.

This model reduces the capital expenditure burden on the DSP developers, because instead of spending all the time and energy in scaling up their own facilities, they can work with a foundry that already did that investment and has the required manufacturing volume. In other words, instead going through a more costly, time-consuming process, the troubles of scaling up are outsourced and (from the perspective of the fabless company) become as simple as putting a purchase order in place. Furthermore, the fabless model also allows companies to concentrate their R&D resources on the end market. If photonics is to move into million-scale volumes, this is likely the way forward.

Economies of Scale and Operating Expenses

Even if an optical transceiver developer could move forward with the CapEx required for its own large-scale fab and a vertically-integrated model, market demand and operational expenses become the next pain point. Transceivers are a B2B market, and their demand is significantly smaller than of B2C consumer electronics. For example, LightCounting estimates that 55 million optical transceivers will be sold in 2021, while the International Data Corporation estimates that 1.4 billion smartphones will be sold in 2021. The latter figure is 25 times larger than that of the transceiver market.

The smaller demand of transceivers means that even if a vertically-integrated transceiver developer upgrades to a larger-scale manufacturing facility, it will likely have more manufacturing capacity than what their customers need. In such a situation, the facility could run at a reduced capacity. However, fabs are not only expensive to build, but also to operate. Unless they can be kept at nearly full utilization, operating expenses (OpEx) will become a drain on the finances of the facility owners.

This issue was something the electronics industry faced in the past, during the 1980s. Integrated electronics manufacturers had excess production capacity, and this situation paved the way for the fabless model too. The large-scale manufacturers ended up selling that excess capacity to smaller, fabless chip developers. Ultimately, the entire electronics industry relied increasingly on the fabless model, to the point where pure play foundries like the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC) appeared and focused entirely on manufacturing for other fabless companies.

In this scenario, everyone ended up winning. The foundries serviced multiple companies and could run their facilities at full capacity, while the fabless companies could outsource manufacturing and reduce their expenditures.

Working with the Best in the Business

The other advantage of pure play foundries is that they not only have state-of-the art equipment but also the best personnel and technical expertise. Even if a vertically-integrated developer transceiver can make the required CapEx to scale up their facilities, developing processes and training people inevitably takes years, delaying the return on investment even further.

By working with an established and experienced foundry, fabless companies take advantage of the highly trained and experience personnel of these facilities. These operators, technicians, and engineers have worked day in, day out with their equipment for years and already developed processes that are finely tuned to their equipment. Thanks to their work, fabless transceiver developers do not have to reinvent the wheel and come up with their own processes, saving valuable time and many, many headaches.

Takeaways

To make transceivers more accessible to world and connect more people together, transceiver developers need to reach production scales in the millions. At EFFECT Photonics, we believe that the way to achieve this goal is by having photonics follow the blueprint laid out by the electronics industry. Using a fabless model, we can reduce the capital expenditure and scale up more quickly and with fewer risks.

Tags: coherent, coherent optics, external foundries, foundries, Integrated Photonics, LightCounting, optical transceivers, photonic integration, Photonics, photonicwafer, pluggables, Transceivers, wafer

Wafer Scale Photonics for a Coherent Future

Insights

January 12, 2022

Wafer Scale Photonics for a Coherent Future

The advances in electronic and optical integration have brought down the size and cost of…

The advances in electronic and optical integration have brought down the size and cost of the coherent transceivers, packing more bits than ever into smaller areas. However, progress in the cost and bandwidth density of transceivers might slow down soon. Electronics has achieved amazing breakthroughs in the last two decades to continue increasing transistor densities and keeping Moore’s Law alive, but these achievements have come at a price. With each new generation of electronic processors, development costs increase and the price per transistor has stagnated.

Figure 1. Evolution of foundry sale price per million transistors over successive electronic process nodes. Based on data from TSMC. Source: AI Chips: What They Are and Why They Matter, Center for Security and Emerging Technology (April 2020).

Due to these developments, electronic digital signal processor (DSP) chips will continue to improve in efficiency and footprint, but their price will stagnate and with it the price of optical transceivers. Without further improvements in the cost per bit, it will be difficult to achieve the goal of making coherent technology more accessible across the entire optical network. This will make it more difficult to provide the device volume and services needed by the growing 5G networks and cloud providers.

To make coherent transceivers more accessible, photonics has to step up now more than ever. With the cost of DSPs stagnating, photonic integration must take the lead in driving down the costs and size of optical transceivers. Integrating all optical components on a single chip makes it easier to scale up in volume, reach these size and cost targets, and ultimately provide faster, more affordable, and sustainable coherent transmission.

Size Matters

Full photonic integration allows us to combine active optical elements like the laser and the amplifer with passive elements, all on the same chip and enclosed in a simple, non-hermetic package. This process enables a much smaller device than combining several indivudally packaged elements. For example, by integrating all photonic functions on a single chip, including lasers and optical amplifiers, EFFECT Photonics’ pluggable transceiver modules can achieve transmit power levels similar to those of line card transponder modules while still keeping the smaller QSFP router pluggable form factor, power consumption, and cost.

Figure 2: Comparing transmit power, noise, size, and cost of line card transponders and different transceiver pluggable modules. Fully integrated QSFP-DD modules include lasers and amplifiers inside a single chip, so they can deliver high transmit powers at small size and low cost.

Full integration technology increases the transmit power by minimizing the optical losses due to the use of more efficient optical modulators, fewer material losses compared to silicon, and the integration of the laser device on the same chip as the rest of the optical components. The semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) used in fully integrated devices can also outperform the performance of micro-EDFAs for transmission distances of at least 80km.

The Economics of Scale

As innovative as full photonic integration can be, it will have little impact if it cannot be manufactured at a high enough volume to satisfy the demands of mobile and cloud providers and drive down the cost per device. Wafer scale photonics manufacturing demands a higher upfront investment, but the resulting high-volume production line drives down the cost per device. This economy-of-scale principle is the same one behind electronics manufacturing, and the same must be applied to photonics.

The more optical components we can integrate into a single chip, the more can the price of each component decrease. The more optical System-on-Chip (SoC) devices can go into a single wafer, the more can the price of each SoC decrease. Researchers at the Technical University of Eindhoven and the JePPIX consortium have done some modelling to show how this economy of scale principle would apply to photonics. If production volumes can increase from a few thousands of chips per year to a few millions, the price per optical chip can decrease from thousands of Euros to mere tens of Euros. This must be the goal for the optical transceiver industry.

Figure 3: Modelling of photonic integrated chip (PIC) cost as a function of aggregate number of PICs produced per year. Exponential increases in production lead to an exponential decrease in cost. Source: Model and graph provided by Prof. Meint Smit, TU Eindhoven.

Full Integration Streamlines Production and Testing

Integrating all optical components on a single chip can make manufacturing and testing more efficient, sustainable, and easier to scale up. The price of photonic devices is not dominated by the manufacturing of the semiconductor chips, but by the device assembly and packaging. Assembling and packaging a device by interconnecting multiple photonic chips together leads to an increase in assembly complexity and therefore additional costs.

This situation happens frequently with the laser component, which is often manufactured on a separate chip and then interconnected to the other optical components which are on another chip. Integrating all components—including the laser—on a single chip shifts the complexity from the assembly process to the much more efficient and scalable semiconductor wafer process. For example, it’s much easier to combine optical components on a wafer at a high-volume than it is to align different chips together in the assembly process, and that drives down the cost of the device.

Testing is another aspect that becomes more efficient and scalable when manufacturing at the wafer level. When faults are found earlier in the testing process, fewer resources and energy are spent in process defective chips. Ideally, testing should happen not only on the final, packaged transceiver but in the earlier stages of PIC fabrication, such as measuring after wafer processing or cutting the wafer into smaller dies.

Figure 4: Package vs. die level testing. Manufacturers can find faults earlier by testing at the die level, which avoids wasting packaging materials.

Full photonic integration enables earlier optical testing on the semiconductor wafer and dies. By testing the dies and wafers directly before packaging, manufacturers need only discard the bad dies rather than the whole package, which saves time, cost, and is more energy efficient and sustainable. For example, EFFECT Photonics reaps these benefits in its production processes. 100% of electrical testing on the PICs happens at the wafer level, and our unique integration technology allows for 90% of optical testing to also happen on the wafer.

Takeaways

Photonics is facing the next stage of its development. There have been many great breakthroughs that have allowed us to take photonic devices from the lab to real-world use cases. However, to have the biggest possible impact in society, we need to manufacture photonic devices at very high volumes to make them accessible to everyone. This requires us to think about production volumes in the scale of millions of units. At EFFECT Photonics, we believe that the way to achieve this goal is by following the blueprint laid out by our friends in the electronics industry. By integrating all optical components on a single chip, we can shift more complexity from the assembly to the wafer, allowing production to scale more efficiently and sustainably. In our next article, we will elaborate on another key factor of the electronics blueprint: the fabless development model.

Tags: coherent, coherent optics, Density, Integrated Photonics, LightCounting, network operators, optical transceivers, photonic integration, Photonics, pluggables, Transceivers, Wafer Scale Photonics

Telecom/Datacom

Emerging Industries

DSP & FEC

Ultra Pure Light Sources

Ecosystems

Pluggable Modules – Direct Detect

Pluggable Modules – Coherent

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ASICs

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Pluggable Modules – Direct Detect

Pluggable Modules – Coherent

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Pluggable Modules – Coherent

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coherent

Eindhoven, The Netherlands

About EFFECT Photonics

About VodafoneZiggo

Overcoming the challenges of alignment, and atmospheric turbulence

An alternative for safe, private networks

Using Highly-Integrated Transceivers in Free Space Optics

Takeaways

Edge data centers are a performance and sustainability imperative

Coherent technology simplifies the scaling of edge data center interconnects

Maximizing Edge Computing with Automation

Takeaways

Same Laser Performance, Smaller Package

Versatile Laser Developers for Different Use Cases

An Independent Player in Times of Consolidation

Takeaways

Co-Designing the Optimal DSP

Co-designing DSP Interfaces for Power Efficiency

Co-Designing Fit-For-Purpose DSPs and PICs

Takeaways

Future Automated Networks Must Also Work on the Physical Layer

The Importance of Standardized Error Correction

A Smart DSP to Rule All Network Links

Takeaways

Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Notes to Editor

Example applications of PICs:

More detail on how the investments will be used:

About PhotonDelta

Background PhotonDelta organization

EFFECT Photonics to Become the Most Highly Vertically Integrated, Independent Coherent Optical Module Vendor

About EFFECT Photonics

About Viasat

A Lower Upfront Investment

Economies of Scale and Operating Expenses

Working with the Best in the Business

Takeaways

Size Matters

The Economics of Scale

Full Integration Streamlines Production and Testing

Takeaways

Telecom/Datacom

Emerging Industries

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Ultra Pure Light Sources

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Pluggable Modules – Direct Detect

Pluggable Modules – Coherent

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