New Product Offers Lab-Testing Flexibility and Enhances PIC Design Accuracy to Accelerate Time to Market

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., March 1, 2023 -- To enhance familiarity with process technologies and increase the accessibility of photonic integrated circuits (PICs), OpenLight today announced the general availability of its process design kit (PDK) Sampler. The PDK Sampler is a unique, die-level PIC which contains OpenLight's standard PDK components, enabling customers to comprehensively test PDK elements in their own lab and validate models to enable first-pass success in a PH18DA tapeout. Components include OpenLight's heterogeneous laser, optical amplifier, 100G PAM4 EAM modulator, and other active and passive components on Tower's PH18DA process.

The adoption of new process technologies often involves a steep learning curve and is a frequent challenge for customers, especially with recent advancements in the silicon photonics arena. This new industry offering provides a short-cut for customers to test individual PDK elements immediately by getting direct lab data prior to taping out a custom PIC design. By being able to test PDK components in their own labs, customers gain increased confidence in the Tower PH18DA process and can optically and electrically probe PICs.

"With this "one-of-everything" PIC made available through Tower Semiconductor, customers have a better vantage point to sample every PDK component available through our open platform," said Dr. Adam Carter, CEO at OpenLight. "OpenLight's mission is to be the first to enable the industry with the right design tools and accelerate the use of PICs at scale in a wide variety of markets and applications. We look forward to paving the way for next-generation designs with our powerful PDK Sampler."

"OpenLight continues to complement Tower's existing open foundry offering," said Dr. Marco Racanelli, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Tower Semiconductor's Analog Business Unit. "As OpenLight's partner, this move will make Tower's PH18DA process more accessible for mutual customers and help them make the most of our technology."

OpenLight launched as an independent company in June 2022, introducing the world's first open silicon photonics platform with heterogeneously integrated III-V components. The company announced the general availability of its PDK last November.   

The OpenLight PDK Sampler includes two PICs. To get in touch with OpenLight on the latest availability and pricing, please reach out to info@openlightphotonics.com. For additional information, visit https://openlightphotonics.com/.

About OpenLight

OpenLight has decades of experience in photonics design. Our executive and engineering teams are delivering the world's first open silicon photonics platform with integrated lasers to improve the performance, power efficiency, and reliability of designs for telecom, datacom, LiDAR, healthcare, HPC, AI, and optical computing applications. With over 200 patents, OpenLight is bringing optical solutions to places it has never been before and enabling technologies and innovation that weren't previously possible. The company is headquartered in Santa Barbara, CA with offices in Silicon Valley. Read more at www.openlightphotonics.com 

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