Inphi announced a highly integrated Silicon Photonics (SiPho) chip that includes multi-channel modulators, photodetectors, multiplexers, demultiplexers, optical power monitors and fiber coupling structures on the same integrated circuit (IC). The chip is targeted at 100G intra and inter data center optical interconnects.
The company said it expects a 100G upgrade cycle in data centers to begin this year with the introduction of a new generation of 3.2T switches using QSFP28 pluggable transceivers.
Inphi believes its SiPho technology, coupled with its low power DSP-based PAM4 and linear amplifiers/drivers, will deliver the industry’s first 100G DWDM PAM4 platform reference design for the QSFP28 form factor.
“Inphi selected Silicon Photonics over competing platforms, because it allows us to integrate multiple key photonics components in a single IC,” said Dr. Radha Nagarajan, chief technology officer, Optical Interconnect at Inphi. “Silicon Phonics technology enables us to deliver innovative solutions to solve customer’s pain points today. Silicon Photonics also scales well into the future for next-generation optics.”
