Everyone was surprised with the announcement of Advanced Micro Foundry as a LWLG partner right before the ASM. Perhaps it might not have been such a surprise as AMF announced a March 26, 2024 update to a previous PDK that allowed for multiple product designs allowing for 200G/lane supporting 800G or 1.6T applications. We never saw the breadcrumbs leading to this one; the birds must have eaten them. Actually, I don't think the announcement of this smaller Singapore foundry garnered the buzz it deserves.
Lightwave keeps talking about only partnering with partners who a capable and trusted so AMF must have the qualities Michael Lebby is looking for. Here is the high praise he offered with the partnership
Dr. Michael Lebby, Chairman and CEO of Lightwave Logic, commented: "AMF is truly a world class facility with their
silicon photonics maturity, and capacity for volume manufacturing. Working with AMF, we not only increased our wafer
size to 200-mm, but we also turbo-boosted silicon photonics with our polymer slot modulators to achieve world class
performance. Engineers from both sides have worked hard to achieve a silicon photonics design that integrates
smoothly with polymer - a process that would have been much more challenging if other next-generation modulator
materials had been utilized. This accomplishment puts our company in a very strong position to ramp volume both for
our polymers as well as 200-mm silicon wafer volume with AMF."
It always made sense for a smaller foundry to come out first as generally speaking, smaller foundries can be more nimble in making decisions and this is supported by the fact an Asia based foundry had not been mentioned in the past and this smaller foundry accelerated quickly to be volume ready with their 200mm manufacturing.
At the ASM, Dr. Lebby stated that AMF asked to announce the partnership stating it would be good for their business.
They are young having been formed in 2017 and are needing to grow volumes. They have leading edge equipment. It is nice to have a foundry that has the right equipment and the time and space to run the work from LWLG (that probably allowed them to speed along to get to the point of having a commercialization-ready PDK in place). One would think that this now puts the pressure on the other foundries working with LWLG to move faster to complete their PDKs if necessary or announce themselves. After all, we hear customers want the modulators for 800G as soon as possible. So which foundry wants to be first with orders?
AMF specializes in silicon nitride photonics. It starts with their silicon-on-insulator platform that offers advantages as far as being to utilize a wide range of wavelengths that make it compatible for may of the current and future uses for silicon photonics. It starts with a semiconductor structure consisting of a layer of single crystalline silicon separated from the bulk substrate by a thin layer of insulator. In SOI wafers the insulator is almost invariably a thermal silicon oxide (SiO2) layer, and the substrate is a silicon wafer.
Silicon Nitride(SiN) can then be sprayed on as a film to the silicon-on-insulator platform in different methods including ALD. SiN does not transmit light itself but adds protective properties including low optical loss and thermal stability leading to better reliability. The foundry can also use SiN-on-Oxide platform another platform that is very supportive of wide frequencies and applications for telecom and datacom..
LWLG seems to be trying to cover many bases with this Asia foundry using SiN in photonics along with processes from foundries not yet named..
Singapore has been helping to fund many advanced electronic manufacturing including silicon photonics. AMF has benefited from that funding in the past.
Singapore is very business friendly, has a free trade agreement with the U.S., is on good terms with China, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. (as a former colony of the U.K.). It has stayed out of the China Sea disputes and the people just seem to prosper. Average yearly income for workers in Singapore is around $70,000.00. There are over 4500 U.S. businesses registered in Singapore because it is worthwhile.
From the AMF website they describe participating in all of the current and next generation business possibilities as LWLG so there is business synergies. AMF can manufacture photonic chips supporting many wavelengths, O-band, C-band, L-band and mid-infrared. This is important as it allows them to enter emerging markets such as Lidar, sensing, and virtual reality in addition to telecom and datacom.
Importantly AMF describes being able to offer Wafer Level Packaging (WLP).
Before WLP packaging companies would receive the foundry's chip which needed final packaging and would secure the chips to the substrate( most commonly silicon) using thin wire to create the bonds. The problem that is increasingly an issue, as chips get smaller, thinner and thinner wire must be used. The result is less secure bonds that allow loss of power and lower reliability. Remember the industry wants smaller chips and LWLG can provide those so a more reliable package is optimal..
AMF can do under bump metallization (UBM) which is a packaging process that creates a thin film of metal between an integrated circuit (IC) or copper pillars and solder bumps in a flip chip package. It allows for a better electrical connection between the die and the solder bumps. Solder bumps are more reliable than the wires that are used.
AMF has other WLP techniques including laser diode attachment used frequently in photonics and single mode fiber attachment which only allows one type of light mode to propagate as opposed to multiple modes thus allowing less dispersion and faster bandwidth (just what data centers look for with data delivery over longer distances). Lower cost is part of the benefit package with WLP as opposed to traditional packaging as well as faster manufacture of a completed chip. Transceiver manufacturers would prefer to receive chips already packaged by WLP to be placed in the transceiver box.
The points I am trying to make is there are so many reasons AMF is a good partner. They have platforms that are at the cutting edge of silicon photonics. I believe Michael Lebby knows how to pick them.
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