With the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC), there is an increasing demand for faster data center interconnects. Optical interconnects have become a feasible solution to address electronic input/output (I/O) performance expansion. Using silicon materials to manufacture optoelectronic devices can not only combine the advantages of silicon materials in mature manufacturing processes, low cost, and high integration, but also leverage the advantages of photonics in high-speed transmission and high bandwidth.
Samsung has joined forces with Broadcom to promote the development of silicon photonics technology and expects to launch this technology within the next two years. This cooperation is meaningful. Broadcom is a major player in the field of wireless and optical chips. 30% of its revenue comes from wireless chips and the other 10% comes from optical communication equipment. It has already cooperated with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSMC) in this area before.
It has been reported that TSMC has organized a dedicated R&D team of approximately 200 experts to focus on how to apply silicon photonics to future chips. The relevant person in charge of TSMC said that if it can provide a good silicon photonics integrated system, it can solve the two key issues of energy efficiency and AI computing power.
The solution proposed by TSMC includes the use of photoelectric co-packaging (CPO) technology to package silicon photonic components with application-specific integrated chips. The components involved cover 45nm to 7nm process technology. TSMC expects to deliver samples early this year, begin mass production in the second half, and expand shipments next year.
Although Samsung is also in talks with other companies, including Nvidia, its cooperation with Broadcom is progressing the fastest. Samsung and Broadcom aim to integrate silicon photonics technology into the next generation of application-specific integrated circuits and optical communications equipment.