OPTICA OIM Enabling High-Volume Photonic Integration through Advanced Packaging

Co-packaged optics need laser sources designed for packaging. John Anderton shares how Photon Bridge's heterogeneous integration approach delivers high on-silicon DWDM power while radically simplifying assembly.

We were glad to share the OIM session with NVIDIA, Nokia, Lightmatter, and Jabil, alongside X-Celeprint, Epiphany Design, Finetech, PHIX Photonics Assembly, and Werner Lieb GmbH, a strong cross-section of the innovators making photonic integration at datacenter scale a reality.

One theme ran through the room: packaging is the hard part. Throughput, automation and assembly complexity are the real constraints on scaling photonics. It is not just optical performance.

Here's how Photon Bridge is addressing it:

1️⃣ 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝘁 𝗢𝗦𝗔𝗧 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲

Our cantilever waveguide interface converts standard flip-chip placement tolerances (~2µm) into <200nm optical accuracy at the laser–silicon facet. No active alignment, no post-bond tuning and compatible with standard OSAT tooling and throughput.

2️⃣ 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲

Thick-film waveguide geometry supports >1W on-chip optical power: more than 50× the capacity of sub-micron membrane platforms, without nonlinear loss penalties.

3️⃣ 𝗙𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀, 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗹𝘆

On-interposer WDM multiplexing eliminates the discrete star coupler and cuts PM fibre connection count in half at equivalent optical power to the CPO: fewer assembly steps, fewer failure points.

→ 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀? 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗟𝗦𝗙𝗣

These three properties combine in a single field-deployable module, a multi-wavelength DWDM external laser source targeting >30mW per color per fiber at the CPO input, across 8, 16, and 32-channel configurations.

𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿, 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴: 𝗮𝗻 𝗘𝗟𝗦 𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗺𝗲.