Sivers Photonics to develop CW-WDM MSA compliant DFB laser arrays

05 Oct 2021

Lasers are designed to support Ayar Labs’ optical I/O solution for high rate advanced optical communication and computing.

Sivers Photonics, a subsidiary of Sivers Semiconductors AB, is to develop CW-WDM MSA compliant laser arrays designed to support Ayar Labs’ optical I/O solution.

Ayar Labs is a developer of integrated optical I/O technology and optical systems for AI, cloud, high-performance computing, 5G, and LIDAR. I/O (input-output) is used to describe any program, operation or device that transfers data to or from a computer and to or from a peripheral device.

The announcement comes after Ayar Labs demonstrated the industry’s first terabit per second Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) optical link with its TeraPHY optical I/O chiplet and SuperNova multi-wavelength optical source, which supports high data rate advanced optical communication and computing applications.

Sivers Photonics said its new InP100 platform “will form a crucial part of the CW-WDM MSA supply chain, designing and manufacturing bespoke high power DFB laser arrays that will support the ongoing development of Ayar Labs’ multi-wavelength optical sources.”

Continuous-Wave WDM MSA

The SuperNova multi-wavelength optical source is the first product compliant with the optical source specifications of the CW-WDM MSA, for which Sivers Photonics is also a promoter member.

The CW-WDM MSA (Continuous-Wave Wavelength Division Multiplexing Multi-Source Agreement) was formed to standardise CW-WDM sources in the O-band for emerging advanced silicon photonics applications, which are expected to move to 8, 16, and 32 wavelengths, to support high-volume datacom optics in artificial intelligence, computing, and cloud data services.

Billy McLaughlin, Managing Director of Sivers Photonics, said, “We have worked very hard creating this platform to support DFB array technology for CW-WDM MSA applications. Our InP100 platform is accelerating time to market for many Silicon Photonics applications. Our bespoke DFB laser arrays are the perfect fit to serve Ayar Labs’ SiPh integration requirements for development in this high-volume market.”

Anders Storm, Group CEO of Sivers Semiconductors, commented, “Ayar Labs was designated one of three companies in the 2021 Gartner ‘Cool Vendors in Silicon Photonics’ report. Ayar Labs’s optical device technology will transform next generation computing and Sivers Photonics is excited to be engaged in this new technology.”

“A strong ecosystem of partners and suppliers who deliver products based on the CW-WDM MSA standard is essential for the optical I/O market to meet the ever-growing bandwidth needs of data-intensive applications,” said Charles Wuischpard, CEO of Ayar Labs. “Sivers’ bespoke DFB laser arrays based on the CW-WDM MSA spec are a critical component for our solution and move us one step closer to delivering optical I/O at scale.”