Rockley Photonics finishes silicon photonics platform, launches chipset shipments
Integrated photonics company Rockley Photonics says it has completed development of a fully integrated silicon photonics platform that is now running in a large-scale foundry environment. The company adds that it has begun shipping chipsets based on the platform to customers. Products using the chipset “will ramp up the production curve,” Rockley Photonics adds.
Rockley Photonics says it has marketing partnerships in place for use of its silicon photonics platform for such applications as optical sensing, 3D laser imaging, and artificial intelligence (AI) computing connectivity, among others.
“In one partnership example, active optical cables (AOCs) and transceivers will be manufactured by our joint venture with Hengtong Optic-Electric Suzhou, a world-leading optical fiber and cable provider,” explained Andrew Rickman, Rockley Photonics’ chairman and CEO. “The platform-derived photonics and electronics chipset we are providing are key to facilitating the massive scaling required in data center expansion, AI computing connectivity, and 5G backhaul, where high bandwidth and dense optical input/output are paramount and also where cost and power utilization are critical.”
The company sees its technology used in a variety of packaging, including an approach it calls optoASICs. Rockley discussed the application of optoASICs in the form of a single ASIC Level 3 data center routing switch with integrated 100G network ports at OFC 2018 (see the video “OFC 2018 Executive Interviews: Rockley Photonics").
Rickman founded Rockley Photonics in 2013 after leaving Bookham Technology, another company he founded (see “Bookham founder resurfaces at Rockley Photonics”). Bookham eventually morphed into Oclaro, which Lumentum recently finished acquiring (see “Lumentum closes Oclaro buy”).
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Stephen Hardy | Editorial Director and Associate Publisher
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