CompoundTek converts customer design into end products through our own proprietary silicon photonics manufacturing process and dedicated 8” CMOS foundry (<90nm-180nm).  Our dedicated fab supports fast turn-around full reticle field or Multi Project Wafers (<2 months depending on number of mask layers) and high-volume mass production requirements.

Silicon photonics continue to be the leading technology enabler in data communications making faster interconnect solutions with higher-density optical connectivity for 100GbE, 400GbE, and beyond. The demand today come from data centers that require solutions that move data faster and more efficiently including fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) as more functionality will be needed such as wavelength tuning and switching. Other applications include biomedical sensing, LIDAR, and those in the aerospace and aeronautic industry. CompoundTek enables companies to fabricate their silicon PICs using our highly advanced solutions. All silicon photonics basic building blocks for Multi Project Wafer(MPW) and full reticle fabrication run of passive and full photonics integrated circuits with active and passive components:

• Si waveguides (Rib, Strip and Si grating coupler)
• SiN waveguides
• Si photonics crystal with grating
• TiN heater and ion implantation doped heater.
• Six ion implantations (N, N+, N++, P, P+, and P++ )
• Ge photodetectors (lateral, vertical NIP and vertical PIN)
• Two Cu BEOL metal layers with W contact Si-contact/Ge-contact and Al bondpad top metal OR Two Al thick first metal BEOL with CMP and W filled via
• Deep trench dry etching (thick oxide and deep trench Si)
• Oxide cladding dry etching

Some of the silicon photonics active and passive photographs, are shown below:

In addition, CompoundTek has a complete silicon photonics electro-optic and testing capability.

The design rule of each layer is specified in the process design kits (PDK). The PDK content covers the following:

• Si photonics full stack schematics
• Design rule (DR)
• Si photonics mask Graphic Database System (GDS) layers
• Mask tape-out process flow
• Max MPW and full reticle field size restriction
• Design rule check (DRC)
• Basic Si photonics design blocks GDS examples (Si waveguide, SiN waveguide, grating coupler, fiber edge coupler, vertical Ge photodetector, Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) modulator, etc.)

To request for PDK, click below.

In collaboration with our research partners, CompoundTek will be releasing our next generation SiPh capabilities including:

• 2µm waveguide
• In-line process rework