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Douglas Yu, a TSMC executive responsible for systems integration, clearly explains the disruptive potential of photonic integrated circuits: “If we can provide a good silicon photonics integration system, we can address both critical issues of energy efficiency and computing power [performance] for AI. This is going to be a new paradigm shift. We may be at the beginning of a new era.”
Silicon photonics aims to develop technology that uses silicon to optimize the conversion of electrical signals into light pulses. The most obvious application of this innovation is implementing high-performance links, which can theoretically improve communication between multiple chips and optimize information transfer between multiple machines.
A high-performance inter-chip communication mechanism could greatly benefit advanced packaging technologies used by leading semiconductor manufacturers such as TSMC, Intel, and Samsung. The same is true for large data centers, which require many machines to be connected. However, one discipline in particular would benefit significantly from silicon photonics: AI.
China Plans to Use This Technology for AI, 6G Communications and Quantum Computers
Intel and TSMC are among the companies that have worked for several years on developing their silicon photonics technologies. As you might expect, Chinese companies and research centers are familiar with this innovation. In mid-May 2024, the Shanghai Institute of Information Technology and Microsystems (China) and the Lausanne Institute of Technology (Switzerland) reached a crucial milestone in this effort. Until then, lithium niobate was one of the key ingredients in photonic integrated circuits.
This synthetic salt is used to manufacture these integrated circuits because its physicochemical properties optimize electricity conversion into light. However, there is a problem: The industrial exploitation of this technology is limited by each wafer’s high cost and size. These scientists have replaced lithium niobate with a more attractive semiconductor material—lithium tantalate (LiTaO₃).
Lithium tantalate enables the large-scale manufacture of photonic chips at much lower costs.
Ou Xin, one of the scientists leading this project, says lithium tantalate performs better than lithium niobate and allows for the production of large-scale photonic integrated circuits at much lower costs. This is because the manufacturing processes are similar to those currently used to produce conventional silicon semiconductors.
According to the South China Morning Post, the Center for Integrated Photonic Chips (CHIPX) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University announced it has begun producing 6-inch wafers for photonic chips. Interestingly, this production line still uses lithium niobate, indicating there is room for advancement and an opportunity to leverage the properties of lithium tantalate.
In any case, CHIPX director Jin Xianmin says photonic integrated circuits have enormous potential in AI model training and inference, classical supercomputing, quantum computers and the development of 6G communications.
Image | TSMC
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