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$LWLG Photonic Integrated Circuits conference : Michael Lebby - Conference Chair, and CEO, Lightwave Logic Inc

Category: Photonics

Published: 20 March 2018

"PICs (photonic integrated circuits) are gearing up for manufacturing with a number of technology platforms and the whole field is becoming white hot."

Michael Lebby - Conference Chair, and CEO, Lightwave Logic Inc

This is the 3rd year for PIC International! The message is clear - PICs are here to stay. After all, why would the world's greatest photonics integrated circuits professionals sign up again and again to catch the latest updates in an environment that is white hot.

At the conference we will hear the latest performance updates and strategies for a number of exciting PIC technological platforms including the incumbent InP, new entrant silicon photonics, and even newer entrants of dielectric photonics and polymer photonics.

Why is the market white hot? Customers are hungry for integrated photonics solutions to their problems. One segment of the market that is making these demands is the datacommunications arena that includes datacenters and high-performance computing. Customers are ready to buy now if the technology is ready. We have seen this year 100Gbps pic based technologies take-off, but we have also seen that customer demand is outstripping supply - by a huge amount.

PIC article

Can we scale 100G and 400G PICs to keep customers happy?

This question and others will be aired in our panel sessions or "comfy seat" chats with executives of the industry. The panel sessions will be hosted by both Noori Noushargh (PIC conference co-chair) a veteran silicon photonics guru and myself. Noori and I are driven to see PIC based technologies become mainstream both for large corporations as well as SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) which include start-ups. We will be asking the tough questions!

The 3rd PIC conference again brings together the world's best companies, executives, senior engineers, and decision makers of PIC technologies that looks to grow significantly in the market place since the first conference in 2016.

White hot: It is because huge applications like Web 2.0 datacenters are now implementing PICs into their infrastructure, and their expectation of volumes exceed most supplier's production capabilities, especially at 100G. The question now is what will be the impact at 400G where the first samples are already being seen at major conferences around the world. The price the Web 2.0 datacenters want to purchase PICs at is still an issue that is being negotiated and debated, and will continue to do so, but the need, utilization, and benefit of integrating photonic components onto a semiconductor chip platform is growing very quickly. This issue amongst others will certainly be addressed at the conference as it represents a huge manufacturing opportunity for PICs. Today, architects of optical networks are expecting not only 400G PIC solutions, but 800G solution, and these folks talk about scaling to data rates beyond 1Tbps (even 1.6Tbps)

It is a very long way since the first integrated photonics chips were designed in the 1980s, and now we are beginning to see not only InP as the incumbent technology platform, but silicon photonics, as well as polymer photonics and dielectric photonics solutions enter the market place. All of these technology platforms will be discussed at the conference.

As an industry, we are beginning to break through the technology impediments and barriers to enable widespread use like Web 2.0 (maybe this should be Web 3.0 now...), but more importantly, new applications such as in consumer, IoT (Internet of Things) environment, automotive (self-driving vehicles), and the bio-medical world. This conference sets the scene for the next decade and will present how PIC technology will penetrate many applications, products, and technologies in coming years.

Integration of photonics is now not just an engineer's dream - it's expected by our customer-base... We have seen the rise of PIC foundries (e.g. AIM in USA, European Commission funded projects), and now the entrance of multi-national, global corporations as well as SMEs in the segment. We are seeing a trend that is fast realizing that discrete stand-alone technologies (lasers, detectors, multipliers, modulators etc.) are becoming individually too large for the tiny boxes (fibre-optic transceivers) that are being used in applications such as datacenters and computing centers where pain points, can be summarized into: Size, Speed, Jammed, and Green.

1) For size datacenters and computing centers are larger (need to connect longer distances) - multimode fibre is giving way to single mode fibre

2) For speed, datacenters are faster (need to switch and route traffic more quickly) - 10 Gbps is giving way to 40 Gbps, 100 Gbps, and now moving towards 400 Gbps and 1 Tbps

3) For jammed, datacenters and computing centers are becoming more dense (more traffic means boxes need to be smaller) - QSFP is now giving way to microQSFP, and perhaps O-SFP. The expectation is that the form factor will eventually settle on tiny boxes like SFP for 1 Tbps (and beyond). Faceplates are denser also, and the conventional designs are giving way to OBO (On-board optics) where fibers are fed through the face plates and connected to the optics in the center of the printed circuit board. Architectures will evolve with this new trend in the industry for on-board interfaces.

4) For green, datacenters and computing centers need to be greener (power consumption needs to be reigned in) - 5 W/port needs to drop to 1 W/port and with integration 0.1 W/port while performance is increased 2 to 10 fold. This can be also measured in pJ/bit where state-of-the-art is decreasing quickly from 100 down to 50, and eventually, 20, 10, and 5pJ/bit.

Business trends for PICs...

The growth of traffic is driving datacenter need, and the components inside the datacentres are not keeping up with demand. The drive to miniaturisation means integrated photonics cannot be avoided now. It's on the roadmaps, and will be implemented commercially. PICs are here to stay and sales will explode over the decade. Those who have knowledge in PICs will benefit from this trend (unless we all stop using the internet - which is doubtful). The internet is becoming a utility, and the PIC technology will allow the internet to become more efficient for its stakeholders.

The key PIC themes at the conference include:

Incumbent InP PICs
New technology PICs such as SiP (Silicon photonics)
Even newer technology PICs such as PP (Polymer photonics) and DP (Dielectric Photonics)

PICs in fiber communications (such as Web 2.0 datacenters), telecommunications, metro, access, PON, Cloud access etc
PICs in new markets such as IoT, medical photonics, bio-medical engineering, instrumentation etc.,

PIC infrastructure - modeling, simulation, design (and the associated tool kits)
Laser coupling to the PIC;
Heterogeneous integration (III-V to silicon);
Monolithic integration (InP);
The role of a photonics foundry for PICs;
Should we consider even newer technologies for PICS? Perhaps polymer photonics, nitrides, oxides, germanium etc.?

At the conference, the complete supply chain is being represented from big data users with datacenters and computing centers to system companies driving next generation optical networks to sub-system companies designing transceiver boxes that house PICs, to a rich portfolio of innovative SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) that include venture backed start-ups. This is complemented by companies that are building a foundry infrastructure for PIC technology using an open access, horizontal model approach with tool and software development. Furthermore, the conference will hear from the large government funded consortiums for PICs that are emerging around the world. These consortiums represent significant investment by governments to bring PIC technology quickly to the marketplace, and in doing so, generate jobs in their respective countries.

Lastly, and not least, I have been personally involved with PICs for over 30years, and I'm very excited to see the movement continue to mature with exciting products and broadening applications. This conference is certainly poised to bring anyone up to speed in a technology that is experiencing white hot growth, and will continue to do so over the next decade.

Michael Lebby

Registration here.

Source: www.picinternational.net

https://www.i-micronews.com/photonics-expertise/11033-photonic-integrated-circuits-conference-michael-lebby-conference-chair-and-ceo-lightwave-logic-inc.html

- SteveS