October_Silicon Photonics Co-packaging｜Taiwan Co-packaging Optics Industry Development Overview

Published On: 2023/11/07|Categories: 科技(Technology)|

Although silicon photonics technology has been developed for more than 20 years, it is only in the past two years that the huge data transmission demand driven by the rise of generative AI has been explored and emphasized, and therefore the technology and market for it and its derived co-encapsulated optics have been grasped by the major players in Europe and the United States. In the past, most Taiwanese companies were not too concerned about the uncommercialized forward-looking technology, so only a few Taiwanese companies, such as NanoPhotonics, Lenovo, TSMC, Sun Micron, Enerchip, and Siwei, have launched silicon photonics and co-encapsulated optics-related products and services. Fortunately, Taiwan has the advantage of a well-developed semiconductor and optoelectronics industry chain, and is expected to establish a co-encapsulated optics industry chain soon with the vigorous development of the market. Participating vendors such as: (1). Epitaxial of the new photoelectric; (2). (2) The packaging and testing of Taiwan's StarTek, Silicon Power, and Signal Core; (3). Test equipment of Wang Si; (4). Optical Module: Shang Chuan and Huaxing Optical; (5). Switch assembly companies such as Chi-Pong and Mingtai. Among the above companies, TSMC and Sun Micron are the most competitive in the market, and the progress of their co-packaging optical technology is described as follows.

TSMC: At HotChips 2021, TSMC announced the roadmap for advanced packaging technologies, proposing COUPE 5D co-encapsulation optical technology for silicon photonics wafers, which interconnects silicon photonics and transducer wafers with soldered wires, and claimed to reduce power consumption by 40% and increase signal transmission rate by 70% compared with the micro-bump or silicon perforated interconnect solution. At ECTC 2023, new co-packaged optical technologies were presented, including 3D COUPE 2.0 and 2.5D CI solutions. The former is to change the silicon photon and transducer chip to hybrid bonding interconnection to reduce the parasitic capacitance and the distance between the connection points, in addition to the use of a broadband gate coupler combined with a microlens, which has a coupling loss of 0.3dB and an increased tolerance for alignment error of ±20um; the latter is to introduce an intermediary layer with the function of interconnecting optical and electrical signals, which is called a Composite Interposer (CI). According to the carrier board and interlayer used, the co-packaged optics are categorized into MCM, Organic Interposer, Inorganic Interposer, etc. MCM is a silicon photon and transducer wafer bonded to the carrier board with bumps, and Organic Interposer is a silicon photon and transducer wafer bonded to the organic interlayer with micro bumps. Inorganic Interposer is a silicon photonics and transducer wafer bonded with micro bumps to an organic intermediate layer, which is then bonded to a carrier board with bumps, and the line width/line pitch of the intermediate layer is 2/2um, corresponding to the INFO_OS packaging platform. Packaging platform.
Sun Microsystems: The new version of Fan-Out-Package-On-Package (FOPoP), to be released in 2023, incorporates co-package optics, which allows the transducer wafer to be stacked on top of the silicon photonics wafer and interconnected with copper pillars to minimize the transmission paths, and the silicon photonics wafer to be connected to the carrier board by solder wires or copper pillars, with the former connecting with a 2-mm path with a signal loss of >6db, and the latter connecting with 2mm with a signal loss of <2.5db. The technology has already been applied to a partner's 800Gpbs optical module product, which the company claims can triple the electrical path, increase bandwidth density by eight times, and extend silicon photonic chip bandwidth to 6.4Tbps. It also supports advanced materials that can ensure minimal warpage at high temperatures, providing sub-micron accuracy and improved optical coupling performance.

To summarize, co-packaged optics is a technology developed with silicon photonic chips. With the demand for high-speed optical modules triggered by a huge increase in the volume of data transmission, the technology has been emphasized by the industry and has become the focus of more and more vendors' technology and product R&D. Although it has the advantages of reducing signal transmission loss and power consumption, improving the reliability of optical modules, and reducing their size, it is difficult to maintain because it cannot be plugged in. Although it has the advantages of reducing signal transmission loss and power consumption, improving the reliability of optical modules and reduce the volume, but can not be plugged and the maintenance difficulties caused by its fatal injury, Taiwan manufacturers to invest in related technology and product development still need to pay attention to the development of this year's new linear drive pluggable optical technology, its low-cost, easy to maintain and compatible with the existing switching equipment, such as the advantages may be postponed to the time of co-packaged optical Its advantages such as low cost, easy maintenance and compatibility with existing switching equipment may delay the timeframe for large-scale commercial application, making its market growth not as optimistic as currently expected.