CW-WDM MSA charts a parallel path for optics

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning have become an integral part of the businesses of the webscale players.

The mega data centre players apply machine learning to the treasure trove of data collected from users to improve services and target advertising.

They can also use their data centres to offer cloud-based AI services.

Training neural networks with data sets is so intensive that it is driving new processor and networking requirements.

It is also impacting optics. Optical interfaces will need to become faster to cope with the amount of data, and that means interfaces with more parallel channels.

Anticipating these trends, a group of companies has formed the Continuous-Wave Wavelength Division Multiplexing (CW-WDM) multi-source agreement (MSA).

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The making of integrated optics

A US initiative is bringing together leading companies with top academics and universities to create a manufacturing infrastructure for the widespread adoption of integrated photonics.

The US sees integrated photonics as a strategic technology and has set up the American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics - AIM Photonics - to advance the technology and make it available to a wider community of companies. AIM Photonics, with $610 million of public and private funding, is a five-year initiative ending in 2020. AIM’s long-term goal is to be self-sustaining.

Doug Coolbaugh

“Right now the infrastructure is focussed on electronics and CMOS but photonics is going to be the future,” says Doug Coolbaugh, chief operations officer at AIM Photonics. “There is no other way to do it [very high bandwidth] except using light for ultra fast communications.”

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Teraxion embraces silicon photonics for its products

Teraxion has become a silicon photonics player with the launch of its compact 40 and 100 Gigabit coherent receivers.

The Canadian optical component company has long been known for its fibre Bragg gratings and tunable dispersion compensation products. But for the last three years it has been developing expertise in silicon photonics and at the recent European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC) exhibition it announced its first products based on the technology.

"You don't have this [fabless] model for indium phosphide or silica, while an ecosystem is developing around silicon photonics"

Martin Guy, Teraxion

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