GF introduces next-generation silicon solutions, and Synopsys responds to the ecosystem

GF GlobalFoundries has partnered with industry leaders such as Broadcom Broadcom, Cisco Systems, Marvell, Nvidia, and photonics players such as Ayar Labs, Lightmatter, PsiQuantum, Ranovus, and Xanadu to deliver unique and innovative solutions to the serious challenges facing data centers today: GF Fotonix, the silicon-optical platform.

According to GF, more than 42 billion IoT devices generate approximately 177 ZB of data per year, and with increased power consumption in data centers, there is an urgent need for innovative solutions to solve data transmission and computing problems.

Realizing the potential of photonic technology and replacing electronic technology with photonic technology to transmit data is the trend, and it continues to maintain its manufacturing leadership in the optical network module market. Between 2021 and 2026, this market will maintain a compound annual growth rate of 26% and will reach approximately $4 billion by 2026.

GF proposes the next generation of the new generation of the silicon-optical platform GF Fotonix and actively collaborates with major customers on design.

The GF Fotonix solution will be manufactured at GF's advanced manufacturing facility in Malta, New York, with PDK 1.0 to be released in April 2022. EDA partners including Synopsys, Ansys, and Cadence all provide design tools and processes to support GF customers and their solutions. GF provides customers with reference design kits, MPWs, test, fab front-end and back-end services, turnkey and semiconductor manufacturing services to help customers get to market faster.

The silicon optical platform GF Fotonix is a single-chip platform that was the first in the industry to combine differentiated 300mm photonic capabilities with 300GHz-class RF-CMOS on a single silicon wafer. GF Fotonix integrates complex processes previously distributed across multiple chips onto a single chip by combining photonic systems, RF RF components, and CMOS logic circuits on a single silicon chip.

GF noted that it is currently the only pure wafer foundry to offer a 300mm single-chip silicon optical solution that demonstrates excellent data transfer rates per fiber (0.5Tbps/fiber). This allows the construction of optical chiplets from 1.6-3.2Tbps, providing faster and more efficient data transmission and better signal integrity. In addition, since the system's bit error rate is reduced to one in 10,000, it is also able to support the next generation of artificial intelligence.

GF Fotonix enables higher levels of integration on photonic integrated circuits (PICs), allowing customers to integrate more product functions, simplifying the BILL of Materials BOM. End customers can achieve better performance with increased capacity and functionality. The new solution also enables innovative packaging solutions such as passive connectivity for large fiber arrays, support for 2.5D packages and on-chip lasers.

The GF Fotonix solution will be manufactured at GF's advanced manufacturing facility in Malta, New York, with PDK 1.0 to be released in April 2022. EDA partners Ansys, Cadence Design Systems, and Synopsys all provide design tools and processes to support GF customers and their solutions. GF provides customers with reference design kits, MPWs, test, fab front-end and back-end services, turnkey and semiconductor manufacturing services to help customers get to market faster.

Synopsys also announced that optoCompiler, its optoCompiler unified chip design solution, will enable developers to better innovate on the GF silicon-optical platform. As the foundation of Synopsys Optoelectronics Unified Design Platform, OptoCompiler provides a complete end-to-end design, verification and sign-off solution for photonic chips. OptoCompiler combines proven specialized photonic technology with industry-leading simulation and physical verification tools to enable developers to quickly and accurately design and validate complex photonic chips.

Synopsys notes that the GF Process Design Toolkit (PDK) is supported through an end-to-end seamless design process that includes schematic capture and layout synthesis using OptoCompiler, simulation using Synopsys PrimeSim and OptSim, and Design Rule Checking (DRC) and Layout and Schematic Comparison (LVS) using Synopsys IC Validator. This unified solution supports PDK-driven designs and custom designs based on The Synopsys Photonic Device Compiler. GF Fotonix's process design toolkit will enable joint customers to reduce turnaround times when developing next-generation silicon-optical chips using Synopsys solutions.

GF expands its partnership with customers for silicon optical solutions

GF has partnered with Cisco Systems to develop custom silicon-optical solutions for DCN and DCI applications, including interdependent process design kits, in close collaboration with GF's Manufacturing Services teams.

For Nvidia, GF designs high-bandwidth, low-power optical interconnect solutions for its advanced data center products. NVIDIA interconnect solutions based on GF Fotonix's single-chip platform will drive high-performance computing and artificial intelligence applications."

Nicholas Harris, CEO of Lightmatter, also said that the next generation of technology is implemented using GF's silicon optical wafer foundry technology, and together they are changing the world's perception of photons, and this is just the beginning.

Marvell also leverages GF's latest germanium silicon (SiGe) technology to provide transimpedance amplifiers and modulation drivers for next-generation optical connectivity solutions for the cloud data center and carrier markets.

Charles Wuischpard, CEO of Ayar Labs, also noted that working with GF in the early days of its inception, from integrating PDK and process optimization to showcasing the first working chip, Ayar Labs' single-chip electronics/photonic solutions combined with GF Fotonix opened up a huge opportunity in the optical I/O market between chips and prepared for mass production by the end of the year.