Silicon Photonics Pioneer to Advise CompoundTek
Prof. Graham T. Reed
CompoundTek has announced that Prof. Graham Trevor Reed from the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton has been appointed as a key adviser to the company in silicon photonics.
Prof. Reed has carried out award-winning work in silicon photonics for more than 25 years, and is acknowledged as one of the pioneers in this field. His work has been widely adopted by industry, and he has received worldwide acclaim for technical contributions and international leadership roles. He has served in many international conference committees, has over 14 patents to his name and published more than 350 papers in the silicon photonics field.
Prof. Reed will speak at PIC International, 10-11 April in Brussels, Belgium. He will discuss the silicon photonics (SiP) fabrication capabilities of Cornerstone at the University of Southampton. Cornerstone's multi-project-wafer (MPW) service, with up to 6 passive calls and 2 active calls per year on various silicon photonics platforms, offers designers/fabless design houses opportunities to take their latest concepts to the next stage on the way towards production. Prof. Reed will outline Cornerstone's capabilities at PIC International including those of the recently installed deep-UV (DUV) scanner; he will present early data and discuss upcoming MPW calls.
Since initiating silicon photonics research in the UK, Prof. Reed's Silicon Photonics Group has provided a series of world-leading results; the Group's work on silicon optical modulators is particularly well known. The first silicon photonics company in the world, Bookham Technology, was founded by Prof. Reed's Ph.D. student, Dr. Andrew Rickman OBE; Bookham went on to adopt principles of early research developed by the Group. Bookham (now named Oclaro) is one of the leading optical sub-system companies in the world and is the target of a (USD) $1.8 billion acquisition bid by Momentum, which was announced in March during the OFC 2018 conference.
Prof. Reed and the Silicon Photonics Group have provided a series of world leading results since the Group's inception including the first published design of an optical modulator with a bandwidth exceeding 1 GHz. The SPG was also the first to publish the design of a depletion mode optical modulator, which is now a technology standard device.
More recently the Group was responsible for the first all-silicon optical modulator operating at 40 G/bps with a high extinction ratio (10dB), as well as a second modulator design (also operating at 40 G/bps) that operates close to polarization independence. They have now reported the first device operating at 50 G/bps. Reed is a regular invited and contributing author to major silicon photonics conferences around the world. He has served on numerous international conference committees, and has also chaired many others.
Upon accepting his appointment, he said, "CompoundTek, being a provider of dedicated 8-inch enhanced silicon photonics commercial foundry services, is addressing both the issues of capacity and process technology gaps in the industry. Where many fabs MPW turnaround time is 3 to 8 months, CompoundTek promises to deliver in less than 2 months, with in-house experts to support customers from MPW right through to high volume production. Consequently, I look forward to providing guidance and direction to CompoundTek to further boost their technical know-how and capabilities so that it will benefit the silicon photonics industry."
