The market for silicon photonic-based products, including optical transceivers, active optical cables (AOCs) and electro-optic modulator (EOM), will increase from 14% in 2018-2019 to 45% by 2025, as the market returns to double digit growth over the next 5 years, according to a new report from LightCounting.
Some highlights from LightCounting’s Integrated Optical Devices Report:
- Massive adoption of optical engines co-packaged with switching ASICs and FPGAs seems to be just around the corner. There are several optical transceivers on the market now, enabled by 2.5D and 3D multi-chip integration. Not all of these co-packaged chips are based on CMOS technology, but the share of CMOS is growing, and this is impacting the optics as well.
- Acacia’s latest version of high-speed coherent DWDM transceivers is a great example. It combines a SiP-based photonic integrated circuit (PIC) with a CMOS-based DSP into a single 3D-stacked assembly, which also includes a modulator driver and TIA chips. The chips are interconnected by vertical copper pillars, to reduce power losses on RF connectors and increase speed. It is powered by an external narrow-linewidth tunable laser, which requires temperature stabilization, but the SiP-based PIC works fine in one stack with the hot ASIC.
- The first 3D stacked design of an Ethernet transceiver was introduced by Luxtera (now Cisco) a few years ago. 2.5D integration combines multiple chips by placing them on a common substrate rather than staking them vertically. This approach is more suitable for integrating chips made of different materials, while offering similar benefits of higher speed and lower power. However, the better performance and reliability of high-speed SiP-based modulators tilts the scale in favor of this technology for both 2.5D and 3D integration.
- The first 400GbE transceivers, sold in 2019-2020, use InP-based devices, but we expect that SiP-based 400GbE products will gain share in 2021-2025. LightCounting’s list of TOP 10 transceiver suppliers included three switch vendors in 2019: Broadcom, Cisco and Intel. All these companies are committed to CMOS and SiP technologies and they will be among the leading suppliers of 400GbE transceivers.
- Some of the first coherent DWDM 400ZR modules will also use InP modulators, but a majority will be based on SiP, as sales of this product will start in 2020. Apart from Acacia, which is becoming part of Cisco now, Ciena, Huawei, Infinera, Nokia and ZTE also plan to manufacture 400ZR and ZR+ modules. Most of these companies are likely to use SiP for 400ZR/ZR+ designs.
LightCounting’sIntegrated Optical Devices Report provides an in-depth analysis of the impact made by integration on the market for optical transceivers and related components in 2010-2019. It also presents a forecast for shipments and sales of discrete and integrated products based on InP, GaAs and SiP technologies for 2020–2025. The forecast is segmented by main applications, including Ethernet, WDM, Active Optical Cables (AOCs) and Embedded Optical Modules (EOMs) and a few others. Products are sorted by data rate, reach, and form factor into more than 150 categories. The report also discusses the supply chain for SiP products and profiles many of the start-up companies developing integrated optical devices. A forecast for the adoption of co-packaged optics in 2023-2028 is also included.
https://www.lightcounting.com/light-trends/adoption-silicon-photonics-reaching-inflection-point/