TowerSemi Qin Lei: Join hands to create the future of optical communications

At the 29th China Integrated Circuit Design Industry 2023 Annual Conference and Guangzhou Integrated Circuit Industry Innovation and Development Summit Forum (ICCAD) held on November 10, Qin Lei, global vice president of Tower Semiconductor Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "TowerSemi"), delivered a speech A speech titled "RF Terminal, Infrastructure and Power Supply Market Trends and Tower Solutions" .

In his speech, Mr. Qin Lei interpreted the trends in the three markets of RF infrastructure, RF terminals, power supply and mixed signal. At the same time, he also shared TowerSemi’s current solutions as a foundry.

Qin Lei said that in the field of radio frequency and high-performance analog circuits (RF&HPA), the rapid growth of the 5G market and the development and maturity of technology have brought many increments to the radio frequency analog chip market, and also brought about better technical performance. High demand and market demand. On the wafer manufacturing side, RF-SOI, high-speed SiGe and silicon photonics (Si Photonics) processes are developing very rapidly, and the market size is also accelerating.

Faced with these opportunities, RF-SOI and other processes developed by Tower Semi have been simultaneously developed on 8-inch and 12-inch platforms. The company also has a variety of process technologies to better meet customer and market needs.

Qin Lei emphasized the huge potential of the current optical communications market. Both at home and abroad, they are developing their own big data centers. As everyone's demand for data increases and the speed of data communication increases, high-speed optical communication becomes more and more important. The 400G market is growing rapidly; with breakthroughs in artificial intelligence technologies such as ChatGPT, it is believed that 800G will usher in very rapid growth next year and promote the progress of the entire optical communications industry; at the same time, the 100G market will still exist .

In the field of infrastructure, not only big data centers, but also optical communication has found application opportunities in 5G base stations. 5G communication base stations rely on optical communication cables for communication, and optical communication chips use traditional optical fiber to the home.

As Qin Lei said, traditional optical modules used to have many different discrete components. With the development of technology today, we can rely on SiGe and silicon photonics technology to integrate them into several chips. With the advantages of high speed, high integration, low power consumption, and low cost, silicon photonic chips have become a popular product and have broad market prospects in the future.

There is currently a general trend of "de-DSP" in optical communication modules, especially in the chips used in data centers. In order to achieve lower costs, lower power consumption, lower latency, and at the same time improve autonomy and controllability, in the past two years, The architectural design tends to replace DSP with more compensation. As a result, more modules are suitable for SiGe technology, promoting further growth of the SiGe market.

秦磊提到，与数字工艺的scaling不同，SiGe等射频模拟工艺更佳重视每一代性能上的提升。以TowerSemi锗硅工艺中当前最先进的H5/H6为例，在F T , F MAX 和B V CEO 等关键指标上均有显著的提升。目前H5已经大规模量产，并通过大量产品验证保障了稳定的良率，更先进的H6是今年9月份正式发布，目前正在原型验证阶段中。

"The current silicon photonics market is still in its infancy. At this stage, it is mainly used in data center applications. It is expected to achieve rapid growth in the next few years. Silicon photonics is a very popular area for investment, and many companies have begun to try it in the Chinese market. . Domestic and foreign optical module manufacturers have made plans in silicon photonics products, and many start-up companies have entered this field. It is expected that there will be a lot of innovation." Qin Lei mentioned. , "However, compared with ordinary CMOS process platforms, it is difficult for the silicon photonics process to be made into a standard process platform. However, TowerSemi is also making continuous efforts and now has a standard platform for customers to use."

The key indicators of silicon photonics technology are the pursuit of higher bandwidth, lower power consumption, and lower overall cost (cost per Gbps). Qin Lei said that TowerSemi provides customers with advantageous process technology on these indicators. . He highlighted TowerSemi's current industry-leading PH18M SiPho platform, which provides a rich range of optical components, including ultra-high bandwidth modulators, photodetectors, low-loss waveguides and optical coupling solutions. Combined with mature design libraries, the platform provides an accurate match of design simulation to chip performance, enabling designers to bring solutions to market on time with minimal design iterations. TowerSemi is currently one of the few wafer fabs in the world capable of large-scale mass production of silicon photonics.

In the field of radio frequency mobile terminals, although there are currently no killer applications in the mobile phone market and the driving force for replacing new phones is not strong enough, driven by 5G and future 6G, the content of radio frequency front-ends continues to increase, driving the development of RF-SOI and SiGe The market is growing steadily. TowerSemi's RF-SOI process has industry-leading Ron-Coff parameters and is produced in many countries around the world, improving the flexibility of the supply chain and reducing the risk of shortages.

The power supply market has always been a relatively large market with a wide range of applications. Qin Lei mentioned that TowerSemi provides customers with matching process options for different customer needs, such as pursuing smaller Rdson or higher withstand voltage.

Qin Lei concluded that TowerSemi provides professional solutions to better empower industry customers in the three important markets of RF terminals, infrastructure and power supply, relying on its constantly evolving technical capabilities, innovative thinking and focus. , TowerSemi will continue to actively lead the simulation ecosystem in the future and contribute to creating full-cycle value.