Skorpios demos CMOS tunable laser

USA: Skorpios Technologies Inc., an innovator in silicon photonic technology, announced the demonstration of a full C-band tunable CMOS photonic laser manufactured in a commercial foundry utilizing its proprietary STAB process.

The application of this wafer scale integration process results in a photonic CMOS Integrated Circuit (IC) that is planar and hermetically encapsulated. Additionally, the Skorpios CMOS laser IC does not require any costly post-fabrication assembly processes such as flip-chip bonding, turning mirrors, lenses or active alignments.

Characterization of the initial devices demonstrates that the laser performance is appropriate for applications from datacenter interconnects to the highest performance coherent long-haul systems supporting data rates exceeding 100 Gb/s. Performance benefits of the laser include narrow linewidth, high side mode suppression, wide tuning range and no requirement for active cooling or hermetic packaging.

Jan Häglund, Ericsson's VP and head of IP Broadband Networks commented: "By Skorpios delivering the first tunable laser based on its novel process which removes the last barriers towards a CMOS ASIC-like business model for optics, we are a step closer to delivering next generation IP networks that are even lower cost and more scalable than today's. Ericsson's 4G IP portfolio will benefit from this pioneering technology in the coming years."

"It is thrilling to see in the lab the achievements on the silicon embedded tunable laser. This opens a clear path for high photonic integration in a low cost material system fitting ideally to new Metro Access applications," said Dr. Antonio Teixeira, senior specialist, Nokia Siemens Networks.

"This is a quantum leap forward in the level of photonic integration, and represents a key missing piece of the silicon photonics puzzle, moving the laser in-chip and delivering a truly single chip solution," stated Stephen Krasulick, founder and CEO of Skorpios.

"Skorpios was founded on the premise of making the world's highest performance silicon photonic devices. The demonstration of the narrow-linewidth, tunable laser is just the first example of a class of devices that STAB enables. Products based on Skorpios' STAB platform offer an order of magnitude cost reduction. Not only does this enable for the first time WDM solutions to be deployed within the data center, but also dramatically reduces the CapEx requirements for long-haul and metro communication networks."

In addition to the high performance achieved, Skorpios' STAB process delivers wafer scale, single chip integration of opto-electronic devices and CMOS, thereby permitting extremely low cost and scalable solutions. Further details on other products that STAB enables will be forthcoming. "Skorpios' unique technology allows for devices with higher performance than possible in conventional material systems. The demonstrated CMOS laser is a crucial step towards the vision of truly integrated photonics," said Dr. Amit Mizrahi, chief scientist, Skorpios.