Lightwave Logic and AMF partner on advanced modulators
The companies are working to create state-of-the-art electro-optic polymer slot modulators on AMF’s 200 mm silicon photonics platform, and say that the devices achieve 200G PAM-4 with a drive voltage below 1 V, enabling 800G and 1.6T pluggable transceivers
Lightwave Logic, a technology platform company leveraging its proprietary electro-optic (EO) polymers to transmit data at higher speeds with less power in a small form factor, has announced that it is collaborating with Advanced Micro Foundry (AMF), a silicon photonics volume foundry, to develop state-of-the-art polymer slot modulators utilising AMF's silicon photonics platform.
According to Lightwave Logic, these modulators have been shown to achieve a record low drive voltage below 1 V and data rates of 200G PAM-4. The company says this performance will enable a new generation of 800G and 1.6T pluggable transceivers to address fast-growing requirements for optical connectivity for large generative AI computing clusters.
Lightwave Logic and AMF have collaborated over the past year to develop the electro-optic polymer slot modulators utilising AMF's standard manufacturing process flow on 200 mm wafers. The companies say that this successful demonstration marks a significant milestone in integrated photonics, blending silicon photonics with polymer materials. Building on this demonstration, both parties are aiming to enhance the modulators to ensure these advanced components are readily accessible to product companies on a manufacturing scale.
“AMF is truly a world-class facility with their silicon photonics maturity, and capacity for volume manufacturing,” said Michael Lebby, chairman and CEO of Lightwave Logic. “Working with AMF, we not only increased our wafer size to 200 mm, but we also turbo-boosted silicon photonics with our polymer slot modulators to achieve world-class performance. Engineers from both sides have worked hard to achieve a silicon photonics design that integrates smoothly with polymer – a process that would have been much more challenging if other next-generation modulator materials had been utilised. This accomplishment puts our company in a very strong position to ramp volume both for our polymers as well as 200 mm silicon wafer volume with AMF.”
Jagadish CV, CEO of AMF, stated: “Lightwave Logic's EO polymer modulators have been demonstrated to support higher baud rates, low power consumption, all while preserving their compact size. These features, integrated with AMF silicon photonics platform, make them cost effective options for 4 x 200G (800G) and next-generation 1.6T pluggable transceivers applications. This demonstration opens exciting opportunities to develop novel solutions for commercial-grade-compatible EO polymer modulators seamlessly integrated with AMF's standard processes. We are keen to continue to explore the synergies between EO polymer modulation on our foundry processes, to provide innovative and manufacturable technology solutions for data communication.”
