Silicon Photonics Workshop - Photons Canada
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Silicon Photonics Workshop 10 th -11 th September 2012 Prepared for: Canadian Photonic Industry Consortium (CPIC) Michael G. Scott and Michael Davies 28 September 2012
Transcript of Silicon Photonics Workshop - Photons Canada
Silicon Photonics Workshop
10th-11th September 2012
Prepared for:
Canadian Photonic Industry Consortium (CPIC)
Michael G. Scott and Michael Davies
28 September 2012
Table of Contents Summary ....................................................................................................................................................... 3
Workshop Objectives .................................................................................................................................... 4
Location & Logistics ...................................................................................................................................... 4
Summary of Presentations ............................................................................................................................ 5
Industry ..................................................................................................................................................... 5
Academic Institutions ............................................................................................................................... 7
Partnerships and Support for Silicon Photonics R&D ............................................................................... 8
Panel Discussion ............................................................................................................................................ 9
Networking Meetings ................................................................................................................................. 10
Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................. 11
Appendix 1: Attendee Statistics .................................................................................................................. 12
Appendix 2: Attendee Survey ..................................................................................................................... 13
Appendix 3: Attendee List ........................................................................................................................... 14
Appendix 4: Agenda .................................................................................................................................... 16
Appendix 5: Follow-up meetings with A*Star IME ..................................................................................... 17
Summary
This report summarises a workshop on Silicon Photonics held on the 10th-11th September 2012, and
organised by CPIC (Canadian Photonic Industry Consortium) and CMC Microsystems. Seventy-two
individuals Canada from Industry, academia, Research institutions and NGOs across Canada met
together with several international representatives, including one of the world’s foremost silicon
photonics foundries to discuss industry needs and Canadian capabilities in Silicon Photonics.
It is concluded that Canada has a significant research capability in silicon photonics, including two small
scale fabs, and a few companies that are leveraging the technology. In principle Canada is well placed to
take advantage of the upcoming inflection point in telecommunications that will demand higher
performance, lower-cost customised components. However, to do so will require a concerted and
collaborative effort between universities, research institutions, component companies and the
multinational network equipment suppliers, many of whom have strategic operations in Ottawa. It will
also require close working with industrial scale fabs. The presence of A* STAR IME, who met one-on-
one with a number of the participants is a first step in this direction.
One missing part of the supply chain is a packaging / prototyping facility that allows rapid turnaround
and component level testing. This missing link has been recognised elsewhere and needs to be
addressed if Canada is to play a significant role in the telecommunications components industry.
The workshop was the first step in the process of leveraging Canada’s capabilities in silicon photonics.
The next step is to construct a roadmap to success. CPIC and CMC Microsystems have committed to lead
this activity. Industry was strongly represented at the workshop, with about one third of the attendees,
and presentations from industry covered ~45% of the workshop content .
Workshop Objectives
The objective of the workshop was an intensive ‘think tank’ to develop a Canadian action plan in silicon
photonics with the active participation of end-users, industry, researchers and government as well as
A*STAR IME from Singapore.
Canada has an established expertise in Silicon Photonics in both industry and research institutions,
originating from the deeper and broader Canadian expertise in telecommunications across all elements
of the value chain from components, sub-systems, full solutions and software. A*STAR IME is a research
institute of the Singapore Science and Engineering Council, an agency for science, technology and
research. A*STAR IME provides R&D foundry and multi-projects wafer prototyping in silicon photonics
and is well known internationally.
In addition to informal presentations and follow-up questions, planned networking opportunities and a
panel discussion enhanced the overall impact of the workshop.
There were three primary objectives:
a) Enable Canadian companies requiring silicon photonics to interact with A*Star IME
b) Educate our SMEs and university researchers on silicon photonics
c) Develop partnerships between academia, national laboratories and industry.
Location & Logistics
The Silicon Photonics workshop was organised by CPIC and CMC Microsystems and was held September
10-11, 2012 at NRC-ICT (Auditorium of M-50). The location was considered to be either excellent or
good by more than 90% of respondents in a follow up survey after the meeting. Refreshments on both
days were provided within M50 to enhance networking between attendees.
Keeping to a simple and effective format kept the attendee fee to a minimum, a point noted in the
attendee survey where more than 90% of respondents considered the cost to be excellent or good.
Geographically, attendees came from British Colombia to Quebec City. There was a concentration of
attendees from the Ottawa region. Given the meeting subject matter and the concentration of research
and business activity in Ottawa around telecommunications the choice of location for this particular
meeting was a good one. Going forward, other meetings arranged by CPIC should be similarly cogniscent
of the geographic concentrations of interest.
Summary of Presentations
The meeting was opened by CPIC and CMC and the time was allocated into four segments:
Industry presentations on needs and expertise
Academic capabilities within Canada
Partnerships and Support for Silicon Photonics R&D
Panel discussion
The workshop was deliberately dominated by presentations from industry. The overall breakdown of
the time allocation is shown below.
Industry
The first talk was by Dr Andy Lim Eu-Jin, A*Star IME on "Emerging Foundry Model for Silicon
Photonics - An Overview". This was a wide ranging talk covering the capabilities of A*Star IME
including the extensive design library of components such as bends, waveguides, couplers,
directional couplers, ring resonators, splitters, modulators, photo-detectors, APDs, add/drop
elements, waveguide crosses, polarisation management, arrayed waveguide circuits and mode
matching to optical fiber. In combination, these elements cover the gamut needed to make a
wide variety of components. Examples of how combining these elements can be used to
develop solutions such as 10Gb/s transceivers with integrated electronics were also provided.
The speaker also explained the business model of A*Star IME, a true foundry using multi-project
Industry 44%
Academia 25%
Partnerships 19%
Panel Discussion
12%
Workshop Time Allocation
wafers (MPW) and also providing packaging and testing. Packaging capabilities included a
coupling library, flip-chip bonding, MEMS optical benches and other capabilities. Examples were
also given of how component businesses (Lightwire) had been established and penetrated the
supply chain of Tier one network equipment vendors (Cisco).
Michel Cyr then gave a description of the product development activities underway at TeraXion.
These development activities are focussed on the 10Gb/s, 40Gb/s and 100Gb/s transceiver
market. TeraXion is an established provider of Fiber Bragg grating and laser products. TeraXion
is committed to silicon photonic based transceivers as a path to create growth, but key to their
strategy is to use a fabless model using facilities such as IMEC, LETI, OpSIS and A*Star IME.
Stéphane Lessard of Ericsson Canada then spoke about “Needs in Silicon Photonics”. Although
Ericsson is primarily known for cell phone infrastructure, optical connectivity is a key enabling
technology in wireless infrastructure. All wireless systems use optical connectivity until 1-2m of
the RF transmitter for the data connection because this significantly reduces power
consumption. In particular, silicon photonics is seen as a path to resolving (a) bandwidth
limitations of copper (b) cooling issues. These issues are significant for microwave LTE backhaul
links over 10kms.
Benjamin Lee, IBM Watson Research Center spoke on "Leveraging Silicon Photonics in High-
Performance Computing". One clear point was that the bottlenecks in communication are now
moving down to the copper (as in pcb traces) and that optics is being used to solve this problem.
In particular very high density optical links are needed to overcome the high power
consumption associated with continued use of copper interconnect. Technologies based on
spatial multiplexing, polymer waveguides, VCSELs, and silicon photonics are being considered.
Silicon photonics is perceived to have advantages not for power but for WDM capability,
interconnect density, reach and switching. Cost is a key factor along with optical loss.
Mark Nowell of Cisco provided insight on "The Impact of Networking Trends and Architectures
on Optical Technology Requirements". Not simply considering the technical performance and
technology platforms that can be used to build components and sub-systems, Nowell showed
how the fundamental architectures of optical networks are changing, driven by the growth in IP
traffic generally but more specifically the delivery of video, the arrival of data centres to support
cloud computing and the support of fixed wireless data services. The key takeaway from this talk
was the upcoming “inflection point” in about 2015-2016 when it is forecast that current
network architectures and technologies will not provide solutions at a price that network
providers can afford to pay. This is because technology improvements and cost-reductions are
advancing more slowly than the demand for data. Currently, optics is the number one cost on a
line card, a situation that must be addressed. The only path to meet this need is to improve the
optical connectivity, specifically through higher port density, reduced port cost, reduced power
consumption and better thermal management. System costs are frequently dominated by these
issues. Key technology trends that need to be leveraged are Photonic-Integrated-Circuits (PiCs),
laser arrays and Silicon Photonics. These technology trends need to be combined with high
volume, low-cost manufacturing and optimised packaging. It was also noted that components
that allow higher complexity coding schemes can also reduce cost.
The final industrial presenter was Serge Bidnyk of Enablence on "Overview of our Silica-on-
Silicon Platform ". Enablence, one of the firms that still has an in-house fabrication
infrastructure, has used a Silica-on-Silicon technology platform to develop integrated
transceivers for FTTH and other applications. Their hybrid integration approach integrates trans-
impedance amplifiers (TIAs), laser diodes, photo-detectors and dispersive elements such as
arrayed waveguides in a single package for products such as 10Gb/s transceivers. Enablence is
also developing components for terabit networks using “coherent communications”
methodologies.
Academic Institutions
Canadian Universities
Several Canadian Universities presented on their research work including:
“Silicon Photonics at McMaster” - A. Knights of McMaster University showed some interesting
work on ring resonators and modulators.
"Silicon photonics at ETS"-Christine Tremblay, ETS –of note was the ability to test
devices/components and subs-systems in an optical layer network to determine system-level
performance.
"Silicon Photonics at University of Ottawa"-Trevor Hall, University of Ottawa showed an
interesting application of MMI devices to create cross-point and transposition switching
architectures.
"Silicon Photonics at Carleton"-Winnie Ye, Carleton University uses the 300m2 CUMFF (Carleton
University Micro-Fabrication Facility) to undertake research in Silicon Photonics, a recognised
strategic research area for Carleton University. Application areas include sensors (with Oz
Optics), solar cells and telecommunications (in partnership with Huawei).
Canadian government research institutions
"Silicon Photonics at NRC-ITC"-Siegfried Janz of NRC showed past work on silicon devices for
communications as well as sensor applications using spiral waveguides, for example for the
micro-array based detection of E.Coli 055. Going forward the ICT-NRC “group” will (a) promote
the development of advanced photonic components for industry in Canada and (b) partner with
key industry players to advance photonic technologies. NRC has facilities to fabricate chip-level
devices for rapid device development and validation, and works with external foundries to port
prototype designs to wafer scale production..
Internationally recognised Universities
"Silicon Photonics at University of Glasgow"-Richard de la Rue of Glasgow University (UK)
reviewed the history (~25 years) and capabilities. Using an e-beam direct write approach,
Glasgow University is able to provide fast prototyping at the chip level. They have demonstrated
many building blocks such as ring resonators on a silica-on silicon material platform.
Partnerships and Support for Silicon Photonics R&D
"Silicon Photonics - Create Project", Lukas Chrostowski, Project Director, University of British
Columbia (UBC) described this $1.65M, 6 year training program which puts designs for both
active and passive devices through IMEC, BAE or Luxtera fabs. The project is Canada-wide but is
based around 5 core Universities and uses the C2Mi packaging capability in Bromont.
In "Putting Silicon Photonics to Work in Canada", Dan Deptuck and Jianzeng Xu, described the
activities of CMC Microsystems, a private not-for-profit organisation primarily focussed on
supporting Canadian Universities. The recent formation of DMT Microsystems to support
industry was also described. CMC supports the aggregation of multi-wafer project wafers
through fabrication facilities such as A*Star IME and also arranges photonics packaging as a
standard service.
Sylvain Langlois of NSERC reviewed the various programs available though NSERC for both
research and collaborative projects with industry. In 2011/12 NSERC spent $16.8M on projects
based on Optics and Photonics, of which about $8.4M was in research partnerships with
industry.
"International Partnering", Kevin Fitzgibbons of DFAIT described international programs
available to Canadian researchers and Industry such as Going Global Innovation and
International Commercialisation Alliance. In particular, Canadian co-operation with Singapore
was highlighted.
Panel Discussion
The panel members were Andy Lim (A*Star IME), Lukas Chrostowski (UBC), Dan Gale (CMC
Microsystems), Michel Cyr (TeraXion) and Douglas James (CPIC)
Two key questions were asked of the panel:
1) Where is Canada now in Silicon Photonics?
2) What is the strategy going forward?
3)
In general, Canada is well positioned to take advantage of the upcoming “inflection point” in
telecommunications. However, Canada must actively pursue this opportunity otherwise the
historical leadership of Canada in telecommunications could be displaced. It is to be remembered
that, it isn’t just about “enabling components”, the opportunity is around selling leading-edge
network equipment based on state-of-the–art enabling components that are not easily copied or
commoditised. Specifically enabling components are needed that reduce power consumption,
reduce (network equipment) cost, and increase connection density & speed.
Canada should focus on higher value components with higher levels of integration that establish
technological differentiation, can withstand competition and are not easily commoditised.
Biosensors provide a non-telecommunications opportunity and should be addressed
It was also stated that packaging of components continues to be a strategic gap. This has been
raised many times in many meetings and workshops-yet no action has been taken. The ability to
design and make, either within or external to Canada, advanced Silicon Photonics chips is useless
unless these chips can be packaged in a timely manner at a suitable quality to allow them to be
evaluated in network systems and applications. ACAMP in Alberta does provide packaging services,
primarily for semiconductor lasers, but a broader and more flexible packaging capability, available to
both industry and academia, is needed if the know-how created at the chip level is to be
economically harvested.
International partnerships are needed to exploit opportunities as Canada does not have either the
scope or scale of resources to cover all aspects of Silicon Photonics
A roadmap for Silicon Photonics in Canada is needed to ensure specific large scale and niche
opportunities are clearly identified and pursued.
Networking Meetings
One of the objectives of this workshop was to facilitate interaction between the Canadian participants
and A* Star IME. The participants took full advantage of this opportunity and 12 one-on-one meetings
were arranged. These are listed in Appendix 5.
Conclusions
The Silicon Photonics workshop provided:
(a) An overview of state-of the art technology on Silicon Photonics
(b) An overview of industry needs from both multinational firms and Canadian firms
(c) An overview of market drivers that determine the need for Silicon Photonics
(d) An overview of Canadian academic capabilities
(e) Networking opportunities. In particular, 16 attendees used the workshop to interact with
representatives of A*STAR IME.
Key points identified were:
The need to develop a road map in order for Canada to be at the fore-front in this technology.
Upcoming “inflection point” that creates a significant opportunity for Silicon Photonics
Coherent communications require devices that can handle more advanced forms of coding such
as QPSK/OFDM
There is a fundamental strong market for telecommunications components-42% CAPGR for
40Gb/s and 100Gb/s transceivers1
Fundamental strong drivers for increased network capacity and new architectures driven by
data centre connectivity, optical back haul, FTTH, metro and long haul, spatial multiplexing for
data-communications (sub 10m).
Canadian firms and research institutions are well placed to take advantage of these
opportunities.
Partnerships are needed to crystallise opportunity, including HQP availability and the
establishment of development partnerships between fabs, academia and industry.
1 Oclaro website
Industry32%
University26%
Government / NGO
42%
Silicon Photonics Workshop: Attendee Breakdown
Appendix 1: Attendee Statistics
The above chart shows the breakdown of the 73 attendees. Of note is the industry representation.
0%
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30%
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90%
100%
Overall Appreciation of the Workshop
Location of the Workshop Cost for Participating Meeting with A*Star IME
Attendee Suvey (44% Response Rate)
Excellent Good Adequate
Appendix 2: Attendee Survey
Following the workshop attendees were contacted via email for a short survey to gather feedback on
the meeting. High levels (excellent/good) of satisfaction were expressed for the overall appreciation,
location and cost of the workshop. For some attendees the availability of A*STAR IME representatives
was significant.
Appendix 3: Attendee List
Name Affiliation E-Mail
Abdul_Majid, Sawsan University of Ottawa [email protected]
Aramideh, Saeid Ranovus [email protected]
Beckett, Doug Ranovus [email protected]
Betty, Ian Ciena [email protected]
Bidnyk, Serge Enablence [email protected]
Braun, Rebecca DFAIT [email protected]
Cao, Bin Ranovus [email protected]
Charbonneau, Sylvain NRC [email protected]
Cheben, Pavel NRC-ICT [email protected]
Chen, Ron Ranovus [email protected]
Chrostowski, Lukas UBC [email protected]
Corriveau, Robert CPIC [email protected]
Cowper, Rich Ranovus [email protected]
Cyr, Michel TeraXion [email protected]
Davies, Mike Consultant [email protected]
De la Rue, Richard University of Glasgow [email protected]
Delage, André NRC-ICT [email protected]
Delisle, Vincent Opmira Technologies [email protected]
Deptuck, Dan CMC Microsystems [email protected]
Ding, Heping NRC [email protected]
Fani-Sani, Fatemeh University of Alberta [email protected]
Fitzgibbons, Kevin DFAIT [email protected]
Flueraru, Costel NRC [email protected]
Fortier, Paul IBM Canada [email protected]
Freeman, Mark University of Alberta [email protected]
Gale, Dan CMC Microsystems [email protected]
Godfrey, Larry Excelitas [email protected]
Goodwill, DominicCentral research institute, Huawei
Technologies [email protected]
Hall, Trevor University of Ottawa [email protected]
Silicon Photonics Workshop, Ottawa, September 10-11, 2012
List of Attendees
Jakubczyk, Jan Optiwave [email protected]
James, Douglas CPIC [email protected]
Janz, Siegfried NRC-ICT [email protected]
Jiang, JiaCentral research institute, Huawei
Technologies [email protected]
Knights Andrew McMaster University [email protected]
Langlois, Sylvain NSERC [email protected]
Larochelle, Sophie Université Laval [email protected]
Lee, Benjamin IBM T.J.Watson [email protected]
Lessard, Stéphane Ericsson Canada [email protected]
Li, Wangzhe University of Ottawa [email protected]
Liboiron-Ladouceur, Odile McGill University [email protected]
Lim Eu-Jin, Andy A*Star IME [email protected]
Liu, Kexing IEEE [email protected]
Liu, Weilin University of Ottawa [email protected]
Lu, Zhenguo NRC-ICT Zhenguo Lu - [email protected]
Mallard, Rob CMC Microsystems [email protected]
Mao, Linda NRC [email protected]
Mérel, Philippe DRDC Valcartier [email protected]
Nicholson, Dave Ranovus [email protected]
Nowell, Mark Cisco [email protected]
Oulachgar, El-Hassane INO [email protected]
Pandy, Anand Excelitas [email protected]
Paquet, Carl TeraXion [email protected]
Poitras, Daniel NRC [email protected]
Poole, Philip NRC [email protected]
Poon, Joyce University of Toronto [email protected]
Rayman, Ruth NRC-ICT [email protected]
Samadi, Payman Optiwave [email protected]
Schmid, Jens NRC-ICT Jens Schmid - [email protected]
Schriemer, Henry University of Ottawa [email protected]
Sherwood, Nicholas Tornado Medical [email protected]
Shi, Wei UBC [email protected]
Shoude, Chang NRC-ICT [email protected]
Sisto, Marco-Michele INO [email protected]
Tremblay, Christine ETS-Ecole de technologie supérieure [email protected]
Wang , Xu UBC [email protected]
Wright, John University of Delaware [email protected]
Xu, Dan-Xia NRC-ICT Dan-Xia Xu - [email protected]
Xu, Jianzeng CMC Microsystems [email protected]
Ye, Winnie Carleton University [email protected]
Zakhem, Natalie DFAIT [email protected]
Zhang, Jessica CMC Microsystems [email protected]
Zhang, Weifeng University of Ottawa [email protected]
Zine-El-Abidine, Imed CMC Microsystems [email protected]
Appendix 4: Agenda
Appendix 5: Follow-up meetings with A*Star IME
One-on-One meetings with A*Star IME,
Dr Andy Lim Eu-Jin
Monday, September 10
11:00 11:30 Larry Godfrey and Anand Pandy, Excelitas
17:30 18:00 El-Hassane Oulachgar and Marco Sisto, INO
18:30 19:00 Dan Gale and Dan Deptuck, CMC Microsytems
Tuesday, September 11
13:30 14:00 Michel Cyr, TeraXion
14:00 14:30 Mark Freeman, U. Alberta
14:30 15:00 Benjamen Lee, IBM Watson Research Center
15:00 15:30 Winnie Ye, Carleton University
15:30 16:00 Joyce Poon, University of Toronto
16:00 16:30 Dominic Goodwill and Jia Jiang, Central Research Institute, Huawei
Technologies Canada
16:30 17:00 Lukas Chrostowski, UBC
17:00 17:30 Ian Betty, Ciena
17:30 18:00 Sawsan Abdul and Trevor Hall, University of Ottawa
