IC-Link now also offers silicon nitride (SiN) manufacturing services through imec’s mature platform
Opening a path to commercial production of imec’s low-loss SiN technology will accelerate innovation in datacom and emerging photonics applications such as (bio)sensing and AR/VR.
With the launch of the 200mm imec silicon nitride photonics platform (iSiNPP), the unique benefits of silicon nitride photonics are moving from research to commercial deployment. This is exciting news for innovators who need access to a technology that:
- Operates in a wide range of wavelengths, including the visible and near-infrared (NIR) spectrum.
- Exhibits low propagation loss.
- Can handle high power and remains stable under temperature variations.
Bringing the power of integrated photonics to new domains
The scalable manufacturing of silicon nitride photonic integrated circuits (PICs) is the latest illustration of IC-Link’s mission of bringing cutting-edge technologies to market once they have been validated by R&D.
This new platform will not only offer opportunities to increase the performance of optical links in data- and telecom. It will also boost emerging applications.
Diagnostic and analytical devices in health and life sciences often use visible light. SiN PICs allow the miniaturization of such devices, as well as the improvement of their performance in terms of sensitivity and resolution.
Silicon nitride also supports the compact, high-performance optical components needed in head-mounted displays for AR/VR systems. Looking further into the future, they can enable the stable, low‑noise optical circuits required for scalable quantum photonic processors.
From idea to production
Just like IC-Link’s established silicon photonics platform iSiPP200, iSiNPP comes with a PDK, allowing companies to immediately start designing their chip in a wide wavelength spectrum – from visible to SWIR. They can quickly move from idea to product with a complete suite of services: from design support to tape-out, processing, testing and supply chain management.
The PDK contains a set of passive library components, including low-loss LPCVD SiN waveguides, edge couplers in the visible bands and potentially LNO modulators in the C/O bands. The heterogeneous integration of lasers and high-performance modulators is on the roadmap.
Manufacturability is guaranteed in imec’s state-of-the-art 200mm fab. In the future, the soon-to-be-built New Origin foundry in the Netherlands will offer an additional production path for iSiNPP PICs, with an envisioned capacity of 50,000 wafers per year. This will enable further scaling of this groundbreaking technology, as well as the integration of new materials and processes.
Want to discuss how your project can benefit from SiN PICs? Click the button below to ask for a meeting with our team.
