9 April 2018

POET partner with 8” silicon foundry SilTerra Malaysia to develop and manufacture Optical Interposer Platform

© Semiconductor Today Magazine / Juno PublishiPicture: Disco’s DAL7440 KABRA laser saw.

POET Technologies Inc of Toronto, Canada and San Jose, CA, USA — a designer and manufacturer of optoelectronic devices, including light sources, passive waveguides and photonic integrated circuits (PIC) for the sensing and datacom markets — has announced a master collaboration agreement with SilTerra Malaysia Sdn Bhd (a wafer foundry offering fabrication and design support services in CMOS logic, high-voltage, mixed-signal, RF, BCD, power and MEMS technologies) for the co-development of fabrication processes and the manufacturing of POET’s Optical Interposer Platform. The partnership is expected to accelerate the path to commercial production of the Optical Interposer, which will enable optical engines for single-mode transceiver modules and other high-bandwidth devices.

Together, the companies will bring up critical waveguide processes previously developed by POET for its Optical Interposer, and implement the process flows on new equipment at SilTerra’s 8” silicon foundry in Kulim Hi-Tech Park (which began commercial production in 2001, and has a capacity of 46,000 wafers per month). In support of this, SilTerra has agreed to assist financially with the purchase of fabrication and testing equipment, as well as to share certain costs associated with facilities enhancements and installation of equipment for manufacturing the Optical Interposer. The collaboration also includes a wafer purchase agreement for the manufacturing of prototype, initial production and volume production wafers.

“Following several months of preliminary collaborative work together, this agreement with SilTerra represents a significant milestone toward our goal of commercializing POET’s Optical Interposer Platform,” says POET’s CEO Dr Suresh Venkatesan. “The combined resources and investments of the two companies enables us to establish a unique manufacturing process as well as a reliable supply of wafers for our Optical Interposer,” he adds. “SilTerra offers POET a truly unique combination of advanced 90nm lithography, cost-effective 8” silicon processing copper metallization and MEMS capabilities, all of which are needed for our Optical Interposer… POET has now secured a key element in the commercialization process, allowing us to establish more engagements with prospective customers.”

SilTerra regards the partnership as “a key strategic engagement to address the increasing need for cost-effective solutions for data-center interconnects through the innovative use of silicon in photonics,” says SilTerra’s CEO Firdaus Abdullah. “POET’s Optical Interposer is a major advance over other approaches to optical interconnects and facilitates the co-packaging of electronics and photonics devices in a single multi-chip module (MCM),” he comments. “POET’s ‘photonics-in-a-package’ solution has the potential to address even larger markets in the future for the integration and co-optimization of ASICs [application-specific integrated circuits] and DSPs [digital signal processors] with photonics at the interposer and chip level. We at SilTerra look forward to a long and prosperous relationship between our two companies and our teams.”

The agreement includes provisions for multiple co-development projects, consignment by POET of newly purchased equipment to be installed in SilTerra’s Malaysian foundry, various support services to be provided by SilTerra, and the purchase of wafers containing Optical Interposer devices from SilTerra over an initial three-year term.

See related items:

POET introduces Optical Interposer Platform for co-packaging of electronic and optical components

Tags: POET

Visit: www.poet-technologies.com

Visit: www.silterra.com