Poet Technologies Inc (POET)

[prototype_101]

Reverse Costing Analysis of Intel's 100Gb Transceiver

Executive Summary

This full reverse costing study has been conducted to provide insight on technology data, manufacturing cost and selling price of the Intel’s Silicon Photonic 100G PSM4 QFSP28 Transceiver.

• In only a few years, Intel suceeded being number 2 supplier for Si photonics based optical transceivers. Intel has suceeded because they put a lot of effort into the bottleneck: the laser chip integration with its InP chiplet bonding followed by post processing. Intel introduced a silicon photonics QSFP transceiver that supports 100G communications in 2016 and since then, the company has now ships a million units of the product per year into data centers. Intel’s 400G products are expected to enter volume production in the second half of 2019. At ECOC 2018, Intel announced new 100G silicon photonics transceivers targeted at 5G wireless fronthaul applications. All these innovations have been allowed with the first generation, the Intel 100G series silicon photonics QSP transceivers featuring laser on chip.

• The transceivers came with two separated line with several dies. The transmitter integrated several InP laser and a CMOS die chiplets are bonded on a main silicon die in flip-chip configuration. On the main silicon die a Mach-Zehnder modulator is added in order to produce the signal. Other components are added to the system in order to focus or isolate the signals. The data are processed using a four channel 25G optical Clock and Data Recovery (CDR) component from MACOM. The receiver function is performed by 4 germanium photodiodes die and a TransImpedance Amplifier (TIA) circuit. The Ge photodiodes are manufactured on a dedicated SOI substrate. A specific fiber optical coupler with focusing lens is used to connect the photodiode die with the fiber optic.

• All of these described in this report shows the potential of Intel in term of packaging, and photonics. In a very small form factor, Intel managed to integrate four lasers, a photonic driver, optical modules, CDR functionality, high performance photodiodes, two advanced substrates and materials for optic. This report will show how implement the chiplet configuration along with a detailed description of the transmitter and receiver line.

• This report constitutes an exhaustive analysis of the main components of the Intel 100G PSM4 connector, including a full analysis of the Silicon Photonic die, the TIA circuit, the Mach-Zehnder Driver circuit, the MACOM circuit and the germanium photodiode along with a cost analysis and price estimate. The 2 fiber optic couplers, focusing lens and the isolator are describe and the price estimated. Moreover, a comparison with Luxtera silicon photonic circuit is performed.

https://yole-i-micronews-com.osu.eu-west-2.outscale.com/uploads/2019/03/19407-Intel-Silicon-Photonic-100G-PSM4-Transceiver-Sample.pdf

tear down overview of Intel’s PSM4 100G product which shows how limited the current SiP capabilities are. PSM4 is the lowest cost 100G transceiver (single mode) on the market but requires 4 times the fiber and the reach is limited to 500m as opposed to 2km for the more advanced but much more expensive CWDM4 transceiver.

Nice to see the evidence Oz.

I would remind everyone that POET is building CWDM4 optical engines because they can. And the reason they are able to leapfrog the competition is due to the low loss MUX/DEMUX dielectric filtering that is produced in a backend CMOS step at extremely low cost relative to the competition. And of course the connectivity enabled by the dielectric are also part of that step which is why the POET optical engine offers what is presented as the lowest cost and lowest loss solution.

It is a huge advantage for POET and is what all the big operators want if they can get it at costs which are low enough. As we have been told by Suresh the large global companies they are dealing with are sold on the cost and are looking forward to POET delivering the combination of superior performance at the low cost POET can offer.

It is a huge advantage for POET and is what all the big operators want if they can get it cheap enough. Management should include the advantages of what they are building in CWDM4 over PSM4 which Suresh has done in the past but that should be included in a tutorial.



http://www.cables-solutions.com/100g-optical-transceivers-links-psm4-vs-cwdm4.html

And the article that ABEL posted should be looked as it very much identifies that industry does not have a solution that everyone can agree on to commit to. I think POET has the solution that they need.

https://www.fibereality.com/blog/junipers-siph-reductio-ad-absurdum

https://agoracom.com/ir/POETTechnologies/forums/discussion/topics/725420-poet-better-hurry-up/messages/2228001#message

some good detective work from the agoracom crew!