Micro assembled Terabit/s capable optical transceivers for Datacom applications

CALADAN is an EU H2020 project, coordinated by IDLab, an imec research group at the Ghent University. The project is focused on the demonstration of optical transceivers realized through heterogeneous integration of SiGe BiCMOS electronics and GaAs quantum dot lasers onto 300mm Silicon Photonic wafers, relying on micro-transfer printing. As part of the envisaged supply chain, the project also targets to reduce the required assembly time for fiber attachment by at least an order of magnitude.

Today, the market for datacom transceivers is mainly driven by AI applications, which is creating a demand for compute capacity that is currently doubling every 3 to 4 months. This translates in a strong demand from industry for optical transceiver modules that will soon need to be able to support a capacity of multiple Terabit/s.

The CALADAN project is now concluding, and has developed novel technologies that can support scaling towards such Terabit/s transceivers:

• Two different types of GaAs quantum dot lasers (fabricated by partner Innolume, according to designs from imec and Tyndall) integrated onto imec’s 300mm Silicon Photonic platform through micro-transfer printing, with a release and micro-transfer printing process initially developed by X-Celeprint,
• Realization of SiGe BiCMOS driver and receiver chiplets fabricated using a modified version of IHP’s SG13G2 process that can be integrated onto imec’s 300mm Silicon Photonic platform through micro-transfer printing, with a release and micro-transfer printing process developed by X-Celeprint,
• Spray coating of ultra-thin adhesive layers facilitating the micro-transfer printing technique by partner EVG,
• A fast vision-based automatic fiber attachment system by partner ficonTEC.

These technologies allow for fast assembly of optical transceivers mostly in parallel at the wafer-level.

The CALADAN consortium consists of the following partners:

1. imec and Ghent University, Belgium, as coordinator
2. University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork and Tyndall National Institute, Ireland
3. IHP – Leibniz-Institut für innovative Mikroelektronik, Germany
4. X-Celeprint Limited, Ireland
5. Innolume GmbH, Germany
6. Mellanox Technologies Ltd., Israel
7. Xilinx Ireland Unlimited Company, Ireland
8. ficonTEC Service GmbH, Germany
9. EV GROUP E. Thallner GmbH, Austria

For more information, please refer to the website: www.caladan.tech and the LinkedIn site: https://www.linkedin.com/company/82045666/admin/feed/posts/