Revenue from Ethernet Switches (Dell Oro)
Ethernet port volumes (Dell-Oro)
Opportunity: Datacenter
The amount of data traversing the cloud-datacenter is increasing exponentially, requiring more ports and higher-speed/port.
There are several major drivers for this growth:
1) Increased work-from-home, requiring workers to do more in the cloud
2) AI workloads, increasing data sent to/and from memory to GPUs to process data
As a result, datacenters require incessant demands on datarates, increasing from 10G-25G-100G-200G-400G. While the newest systems require 400G, 800G, and 1.6T per port, the major number of transceiver volumes are still dominated by the lower-speed datarates from 1G-10G-25G-100G. Hence, there still exists significant demand for 'legacy' products, especially in enterprise and non-hyperscale cloud-computing applications.
PhotonIC Advantage: CMOS vs. SiGe
Competitors for optoelectronic chips used in datacenter optics utilize an exotic SiGe process (8-inch wafer). While this special SiGe process has the best analog performance (Gain-Bandwidth) versus standard-CMOS (12-inch wafer), it has several major limitations:
#1: Lowest-Cost
CMOS wafer (12-inch) provides nearly 2.5x more dies per wafer than a SiGe wafer (8-inch). Hence, based purely on wafer cost,
the fundamental price/mm2 can be as much as 50% lower cost.
#2: Digital Integration
High-speed signaling requires higher speeds, less timing certainty, and therefore less signal-to-noise. On-chip digital processing is necessary at these higher speeds, in order to enable new digital-only features, such as: on-chip eye monitor, closed-loop digital calibration, nonlinear equalization, and FEC (forward error correction).
#3: Supply-Chain Risk Uncertainty
This specialized SiGe 8-inch fab typically is only found in small foundries based in North America. Whereas a CMOS 12-inch fab can be found in multiple locations worldwide, including Taiwan, Korea, China, Germany, and elsewhere. Hence, the supply chain
is more diversified and prevents any one location from being a bottleneck.
#4: Pin-Compatible
PhotonIC chips are pin-to-pin compatible to competitors' previous offerings, enabling customers to do easy evaluation and testing. This pin-to-pin die geometry enables simpler supply-chain management and multiple sources for a particular product.
PhotonIC is unique from its competitors, in that for our high-volume NRZ products (40G, 25G, 100G), we utilize a standard CMOS to operate at 25Gbps datarates for optical communications. Several patents have been filed and published, key IP that enables CMOS process to achieve the performance as a SiGe performance -- at half the price.
NOTE: While CMOS is good for some products that require intensive analog/digital integration, it is not optimized for analog-intensive applications. Hence, PhotonIC uses SiGe process where necessary, as well as CMOS process -- depending on product lines. For example, our active-copper-cable (ACC) products below are mostly analog, so we utilize SiGe for those.
| DATACENTER OPTICS | 25G, 40G, 100G | MODULE | PROCESS | CHIP SIZE | STATUS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4x10G VCSEL Driver + TIA | PHXT8104 & PHXR8104 | MMF: QSFP+ | CMOS | 2mm x 1.6mm (Pin-Compatible with SiGe) | Mass Production |
| 1x25G VCSEL Driver + TIA | PHXT8201 & PHXR8201 | MMF: SFP28 | CMOS | 1.5mm x 2mm (20% smaller vs competitor with SiGe) | Mass Production |
| 4x25G VCSEL-Driver + TIA | PHXT8204 & PHXR8204 | MMF: 100G-SR4 | CMOS | 2mm x 3mm (Pin-Compatible with SiGe) 1.9W (Module) -9dBm at HT | Small-Volume Production |
| 4x25G DML-Driver + TIA | PHXD2804 | SMF: CWDM4 | CMOS | Pending | Under Development |
| DATACENTER OPTICS | PAM-4 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1x50Gbps-PAM4 DML Driver + TIA | PHLD5601 & PHTA5601 | 5G Mid-haul, 50G DML | SiGe | Under Development |
| 4x50Gbps-PAM4 DML Driver + TIA | PHLD5604 & PHTA5604 | QSFP56 200G DR4/FR4 | SiGe | Under Development |
| 4x100Gbps-PAM4 DML Driver + TIA | PHLD1124 & PHTA1124 | QSFP112400G DR4/FR4 | SiGe | Under Development |
| 50G/100G PAM-4 Retimer | PHX4025 | QSFP56: 200G/400G DR4/FR4 | CMOS & SiGe | Research |
| ACTIVE COPPER CABLES | Product | Application | Process | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 x 28G-NRZ Limiting Redriver | PHRD6502 | 25G & 100G (7m-distance) 50% smaller die: Low-Price, High-Density | SiGe | Mass Production |
| 2 x 56G-PAM4 Linear Redriver | PHRD6512 | 200G & 400G (5m-distance) 50% smaller die: Low-Price, High-Density | SiGe | Mass Production |
| 4 x 100G-PAM4 Linear Redriver | PHRD8504 | 400G & 800G (3m-distance) Higher EQ, Better S-param, Ease-of-Use | SiGe | Under Development |
