Scalable Highly-Integrated Photonics Packaging for the 5G World: From Datacenters to Drones

Abstract: PHIX offers assembly services for all major photonic integrated circuit (PIC) technology platforms (such as Indium Phosphide, Silicon Photonics, Silicon Nitride, and Planar Lightwave Circuit) and is specialized in hybrid integration of chip-to-chip and fiber-to-chip modules. In this talk, we discuss some of the advanced photonics packaging work that we have been performing in the EU Horizon 2020 projects TERAWAY and POETICS. In both projects, a close integration of many dissimilar components from multiple platforms introduces new challenges in hybrid integration and especially thermal management. These platforms include those of our project partners Fraunhofer HHI (PolyBoard [polymer on Si carrier], InP) and LioniX (TriPleX [SiN]) along with CMOS chips from commercial suppliers and custom designs in MPW runs. The photonic integration in these projects realizes parallel chip-to-chip integration to a photonic motherboard as well as fiber-to-chip coupling for system I/O. The optical interconnects are supported by electrical circuits operating both in the DC and RF regimes targeting symbol rates of 100 Gbaud and beyond. In the case of the TERAWAY project, all of this needs to be realized in the form factor of an unpiloted drone. Particular attention is given to the packaging design rules that enable this integration as well as the thermal design process and trade-offs associated with various cooling strategies.