Description

This issue of Microelectronics TOE covers advances in silicon photonics technology for data center applications. Innovations profiled include high-speed silicon photonics-based interconnects by Mellanox Technologies, silicon photonics optical transceivers for long range data transmission by Intel Corporation, a scalable non-blocking silicon photonic optical switch by the Columbia University, and a high-speed parallel data center interconnect platform by Inphi Corporation.

The Microelectronics TechVision Opportunity Engine (TOE) captures global electronics-related innovations and developments on a weekly basis. Developments are centred on electronics attributed by low power and cost, smaller size, better viewing, display and interface facilities, wireless connectivity, higher memory capacity, flexibility and wearables. Research focus themes include small footprint lightweight devices (CNTs, graphene), smart monitoring and control (touch and haptics), energy efficiency (LEDs, OLEDs, power and thermal management, energy harvesting), and high speed and improved conductivity devices (SiC, GaN, GaAs).

Miniaturization, a move toward lower power consumption, and the need for enhanced features are driving innovations in the electronics sector. Technology focus areas include semiconductor manufacturing and design, flexible electronics, 3D integration/IC, MEMS and NEMS, solid state lighting, advanced displays, nanoelectronics, wearable electronics, brain computer interface, advanced displays, near field communication, and next generation data storage or memory.

Keywords: Silicon photonics, SiPH, data center