Israeli global specialty foundry Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (Nasdaq: TSEM; TASE: TSEM) today unveiled its SiGe Terabit Platform targeting high-speed wireline communications for the terabit age. Tower Semiconductor is led by CEO Russell Ellwanger and markets as TowerJazz.
Wireline data traffic is increasing dramatically, with traffic at Google famously increasing by 50 times over the last six to seven years, or at 75% per year. Estimates vary, but experts agree on double digit CAGRs and a 2020 market for high speed optical components in excess of $9 billion. TowerJazz addresses this market through a family of customized foundry silicon-germanium (SiGe) BiCMOS technologies and is today announcing availability of its highest performance process to date: S4. TowerJazz customers include the who’s-who for components that carry the world’s high-speed data traffic such as: Broadcom, Inphi, MACOM, Maxim, Maxlinear and Semtech, among others.
SiGe Terabit Platform - HX, H2, H3, H4, S4 The TowerJazz SiGe Terabit Platform includes advanced CMOS, together with low-noise, high-speed, and high power SiGe devices and unique patented features that enable best-in-class performance for the most demanding ICs in high-speed communication links. These components include, for example, trans-impedance amplifiers (TIAs) on the receive path and laser drivers on the transmit path. The addition of S4 to the SiGe Terabit Platform extends a rich history of process technologies that include HX and H2 (addressing 10 to 28Gbps requirements), H3 with SiGe speeds of 280GHz (addressing requirements up to 100Gbps), and now H4 and S4 with transistor speeds that exceed 300GHz and can reduce power consumption by nearly an order of magnitude.
Two recent demonstrations, both in TowerJazz H3 technology, showcase the value of TowerJazz’s SiGe Terabit Platform. The first is UCI’s demonstration of TIA performance at 50 Gbps (2015 BCTM). Dr. Payam Heydari, IEEE Distinguished Lecturer & Full Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of California, Irvine, said, “We measured up to 70Gbps data rate, using a NRZ (non-return to zero) architecture with an eye of 50Gbps. We estimate this chip will consume less than 0.5mW per GHz.”
The second is Bell Labs, the innovation engine of Nokia with its demonstration of a 112Gbps transceiver (2015 IEEE CSICS). Dr. Shahriar Shahramian, Technical Manager, Bell Labs, and the lead author in the publication, said, “To my knowledge, this is the world’s first demonstration of a >100GBs serial datalink built with a silicon IC.” He added that the “56-GBaud, 4-PAM transmission over 2-km of SSMF (single mode fiber) has been experimentally demonstrated.”
“These demonstrations used our H3 process and each represents record performance in data rate, as well as demonstrating new standards in data transmission over single mode fiber” said Dr. David Howard, TowerJazz Executive Director & Fellow. “We are very excited to introduce our newest process, S4, which enables our SiGe Terabit Platform to deliver higher speed and lower power and we look forward to the ground-breaking results our partners and customers will demonstrate next.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 5, 2016
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