tag: photonics

Making On-Chip Photonics Manufacturable
By Gregory Haley - 18 Jun, 2026 - Comments: 0

Key Takeaways: System-level energy and bandwidth pressures are pulling optics into the package faster than the manufacturing flow can mature. Photonics combines front-end fabrication, materials, thermal, cleanliness, and test into one problem that can’t be solved domain by domain. Test is moving upstream because discovering an optical failure after final assembly forfeits every goo... » read more

Research Bits: June 15
By Jesse Allen - 15 Jun, 2026 - Comments: 0

NAND in space Researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology and Pennsylvania State University built ferroelectric NAND flash memory chips that can withstand up to 30 times higher radiation levels compared to conventional NAND. “If you send traditional flash memory to space, the radiation interacting with flash memory’s trapped electric charge can easily corrupt the data,” said Asif... » read more

Building A Production-Ready Optically Connected Rack For AI Scale-Up
By Nandita Aggarwal - 11 Jun, 2026 - Comments: 0

By Nandita Aggarwal and Nicholas Chang As AI models drive compute demand, servers keep getting bigger. Rack‑scale AI systems (such as the 72-GPU systems from NVIDIA or AMD) enable many GPUs to work together through system-level optimization. They push beyond the limits of single-chip performance and meet the soaring compute needs of the AI era. But this is just the beginning. The next s... » read more

Co-Packaged Optics Testing Faces Steep Data Center Ramp
By Anne Meixner - 09 Jun, 2026 - Comments: 0

Key Takeaways: Device interface board must balance flexibility in handling with customization for different optical connectors. Test fixtures should account for DUT socketing challenges, such as warpage, coupling, and interference. Advanced data management practices will help speed yield learning. Integrating photonic and electrical ICs into co-packaged optics (CPO) requires... » read more

The Sub-2nm Paradox
By Ed Sperling - 01 Jun, 2026 - Comments: 2

Key Takeaways: Process variation and physics are changing semiconductor design, manufacturing, and economics at 2nm and below. Even though new manufacturing processes are being introduced, it's taking longer for them to mature. The focus for many chip designs is faster data movement and more efficient computing, rather than just relying on more transistors per mm2. At 2nm an... » read more

Low-Temp Solders Are Suddenly Critical For Chiplets And Photonics
By Laura Peters - 21 May, 2026 - Comments: 0

Key Takeaways: Tin-bismuth-based solders enable reduced warpage and compatibility with silicon photonics and other temperature-sensitive components. A novel soldering process using white light could help prevent cracks in flip-chip BGA package solder balls, while reducing the carbon footprint. Hypoeutectic Sn-Bi based solders prove especially promising as an SAC305 replacement. ... » read more

Research Bits: May 19
By Jesse Allen - 19 May, 2026 - Comments: 0

Programmable PIC Researchers from the University of Washington designed a low-power programmable photonic integrated circuit that is electrically reconfigurable and can be mass-produced. “This optical chip could help to accelerate the prototyping cycle while reducing power consumption for applications like AI computing. Our study is also the first time someone has shown that these kinds o... » read more

Silicon Photonics: Integrated Grating-Based Antennas for Optical Phased Arrays (MIT)
By Technical Paper Link - 12 May, 2026 - Comments: 0

A new technical paper, "Reduced-crosstalk antennas for grating-lobe-free and wide-field-of-view integrated optical phased arrays," was published by researchers at MIT. Abstract "Integrated optical phased arrays (OPAs) have emerged as a promising technology for many applications due to their ability to dynamically control free-space optical beams in a compact and non-mechanical manner. How... » read more

The Specialty Device Surge Part 3: Solving The Process Control Challenges Of MEMS, Photonics, Co-Packaged Optics, And More
By Christopher Haire - 12 May, 2026 - Comments: 0

Every day, consumers rely on an invisible network of specialty semiconductor devices without realizing it. The smartphone in your pocket is a good place to start. It knows when you rotate the screen thanks to MEMS sensors, and its camera delivers crisp images through advanced CMOS image sensors. Meanwhile, fast charging technology, wireless connectivity, facial recognition, and high-frequency c... » read more

Foundry-Compatible Grating Couplers Using an Inverse Design Framework (Yale)
By Technical Paper Link - 05 May, 2026 - Comments: 0

A new technical paper, "Multimode grating couplers via foundry-compliant inverse design," was published by researchers at Yale University. Abstract "We apply a systematic inverse design approach to discover foundry-compliant, multilayer grating couplers that can efficiently couple a number of independent waves from free space to on-chip propagating modes. For visible- and near-infrared co... » read more

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