CompoundTek Achieves Breakthrough for Industry Leading Silicon Waveguide Loss

CompoundTek Pte Ltd, a global foundry services provider in emerging Silicon Photonics (SiPh) solution, successfully demonstrated industry-leading performance for silicon waveguide loss for both “O” and “C” band, as part of its technology roadmap for Silicon Photonics. Optical tests have shown these waveguide losses using a newly developed process, delivers better optical propagation loss of > 50% better compared to previous performance running CompoundTek’s Gen-1 process. Representing a significant breakthrough for the industry, the CompoundTek 8-inch silicon waveguide loss is now likely, better than or equal to existing 12” Si photonics commercial foundry.

The C-band propagation loss in TE mode is improved to < 0.5dB/cm, 0.8dB/cm and 0.8dB/cm for 450nm width Si rib deep waveguide, 450nm width Si strip waveguide and 500nm width Si strip waveguide, respectively. The O-band propagation loss in TE mode is now 0.8dB/cm, 1.7dB/cm and 1.9dB/cm for 410nm width Si rib deep waveguide, 410nm width Si strip waveguide and 380nm width Si strip waveguide, correspondingly. Besides the low Si waveguide loss improvement, 8” foundry lower cost advantages with 3µm BOX on 8” SOI wafers as compared to 2µm BOX on 12” SOI wafers are also an additional value-added. The lower optical propagation loss enable customers’ additional flexibility when designing their new products while improving the performance of existing ones.

This breakthrough process is now available and demonstrates the company’s commitment to providing “Best-In-Class” Silicon Photonics solutions through the continued expansion of service capabilities and product portfolio. Since its launch in 2017, Singapore-based CompoundTek has over 22 global commercial customers and over 25 research institutes and universities in various applications such as telecommunications, automotive radar, data communications, bio-sensing, artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and smart sensors etc.