The solution includes a silicon photonics integrated circuit (PIC), a flip chip transimpedance amplifier (TIA), and an analogue controller; all designed to work seamlessly with Inphi’s Porrima PAM4 Digital Signal Processor (DSP) to enable faster time to ramp and lower cost per bit.
Inphi is looking to bring high volume silicon wafer scale manufacturing to the optics industry and is offering customers the option to purchase Inphi-designed high-performance 400G DR4 PICs in full 200-mm wafer form. Customers receive silicon PIC wafers direct from an Inphi fab partner and will be able to continue with high-volume wafer scale manufacturing and 3-D heterogenous integration in their own factories. This is an innovative business model, that brings silicon wafer scale manufacturing to the optics industry enabling faster ramp and lower cost per bit.
“Inphi has been the leading force to define and create a PAM4 ecosystem of optical modules for cloud and data centre networks,” said Dr. Loi Nguyen, Founder and SVP, Optical Interconnect at Inphi. “I believe today’s announcement will mark the beginning of a new era of the ‘fabless optics’ industry. Optical transceiver manufacturers can leverage silicon high volume wafer scale in the manufacturing of transceivers without owning a fab.”