PUBLIC

LOW-COST PATHWAYS TO VOLUME PRODUCTION FOR

CMOS ASICS AND PHOTONIC ICS

PHILLIP CHRISTIE

PHOTONS AND ELECTRONS

2

CO-DESIGN

2

PHOTONS AND ELECTRONS

3

FREE SPACE

Photon

Electron

Atomic spacing

PHOTONS AND ELECTRONS

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IN MATERIALS

PHOTONS AND ELECTRONS

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IN WIRES

PHOTONCS AND ELECTRONS

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PROCESSING COSTS

PIC 180nm ASIC

Photon’s THz coherent bandwidth and high propagation speed at successively shorter distances

Narrow spectral bandwidth of photons lead to applications in molecular spectroscopy, remote sensing, medical applications

Resonant (ring) structures can be sensitized to a wide variety of compounds and biological molecules

Control and processing of photonic data input is ideally suited to low-cost digital ASICs

ADC/DAC

Heater control

Error correction

7

APPLICATIONS

PHOTONS AND ELECTRONS

FOUNDRY ACCESS

imec.IC-link is an accredited TSMC Value Chain

aggregator

500 tape-outs per year

175+ PIC designs since 2011

From 24 countries

MPW PICs, active and passive runs

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SMALL VOLUME PRODUCTION AND PROTO-TYPING

LOW COST

180nm

45 samples

25mm2

€16k

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MULTI-PROJECT WAFER (MPW) RUNS

ISiPP50G

20 samples

25mm2

€40k

IP PROTECTION

Patents provide protection only if you

can enforce them

PCBs are easy to reverse engineer

Extremely difficult and expensive to

reverse engineer an ASIC

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ASICS ARE HARD TO COPY

IMEC RESEARCH

FOUNDRY ACCESS

DESIGN & IP

ASSEMBLY

TEST

PCB/PBA

90NM DEDICATED MASK EXAMPLE

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13 MM2 WIRELESS CAMERA

Dedicated mask NRE costs

Mask cost $480,000

Engineering lot (6 wafers) $20,000

Total dedicated mask NRE costs $500,000

Dedicated mask wafer processing costs

Processing cost $3,000

Wafer area (cm2) 730

Dies per wafer 5600

Processing cost per die $0.5

All numbers are approximate and do not represent market prices

90NM MPW EXAMPLE

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13 MM2 WIRELESS CAMERA

MPW NRE costs

Minimum production cost (inc 1 wafer) $50,000

Dies per wafer 100

Minimum die area (mm2) 16

Actual die area (mm2) 13

Actual MPW cost $50,000

Processing cost per die (first wafer) $500

MPW wafer processing costs

Additional wafer cost $6,000

Processing cost per additional die $60

All numbers are approximate and do not represent market prices

180 NM EXAMPLE

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11 MM2 SENSOR NETWORK CHIP

MPW NRE costs

Minimum production cost (inc 1 wafer) $25,000.00

Dies per wafer 40

Minimum die area (mm2) 25

Actual die area (mm2) 11

Actual MPW cost $25,000.00

Processing cost per die (first wafer) $625.00

MPW wafer processing costs

Additional wafer cost $2,000.00

Processing cost per additional die $50.00

Dedicated mask NRE costs

Mask cost $120,000.00

Engineering lot (12 wafers) $14,400.00

Total decicate dmask NRE costs $134,400.00

Dedicated mask wafer processing costs

Processing cost $1,000.00

Wafer area (cm2) 324

Dies per wafer 2945

Processing cost per die $0.34

All numbers are approximate and do not represent market prices

PRODUCTION AND NRE COST

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OVERVIEW

All numbers are approximate and do not represent market prices

IMEC SILICON PHOTONICS

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• MPW service and Low Volume Production

• 2 passive and 2 active MPW runs per year

• Dedicated runs and production on request

• More than 175 photonics ICs taped-out since 2011

PHOTONICS INDUSTRIALISATION

IMEC SILICON PHOTONICS

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GROWING ECOSYSTEM FOR SERVICES

Design Houses

Fabs

Packaging Service

Testing Service

CAD Tool Vendors

Design aggregators/ Support

IP Blocks

System Design

PDK

Quality

TAT

Value Chain Actors Key Features

Design Flow

Tech Support

New users

Localized Support

Custom /

Standardized

PHOTONIC EDA AND DESIGN

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LAYOUT IS KEY TO OPTIMIZE YIELD

PIC EXAMPLE

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5x5mm2

MPW NRE costs

Minimum production cost $40,000

Dies per wafer 20

Processing cost per additional die $2,000

Dedicated mask NRE costs

Mask cost $80,000.00 Dedicated mask wafer processing

costs

Processing cost $25,000

Wafer area (cm2) 324

Dies per wafer 1256

Processing cost per die $20

$0

$100,000

$200,000

$300,000

$400,000

$500,000

$600,000

0 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000 10,000 12,000 14,000 16,000 18,000 20,000

Totalcost($)

Numberofdies

PIC5x5mm

MPW Dedicatedmask

All numbers are approximate and do not represent market prices

0

100000

200000

300000

400000

500000

600000

0 5000 10000 15000 20000

ProductionCost($)

Numberofchips

180nm

90nm

PIC

PIC AND ASIC PRODUCTION AND NRE COSTS

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COMPARISON

All numbers are approximate and do not represent market prices

PASSIVE DEVICES : USE CASE

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GENALYTE EXAMPLE - PASSIVE CIRCUITRY USED AS BIOSENSOR

REFERENCES:

• Washburn, Adam L., L. Cary Gunn, and Ryan C. Bailey. "Label-free quantitation of a cancer biomarker in complex media using silicon photonic microring resonators." Analytical chemistry 81.22 (2009): 9499-9506.

• Iqbal, Muzammil, et al. "Label-free biosensor arrays based on silicon ring resonators and high-speed optical scanning instrumentation." IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics 16.3 (2010): 654-661.

ACTIVE DEVICES : USE CASE

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ASIC CONTROL OF PIC

12-fiber array

CO-DESIGN PIC/ASIC SYSTEM

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Photo

Diode

Photo current TIA

Vout ADC

Digital

B.band CPU

Trans-

Impedance

amplifier

Digital

B.band

PHY

(el.)

ASIC PIC

RX

TX

Anode

Cathode

MD Digital

B.band SRAM

Digital

B.band

PHY

(el.)

DE

MU

X

MU

X

Mo

du

lato

r

Mo

du

lato

r

Mo

du

lato

r

...

l1 l2 ln

l1

l2

ln

Temp

Control

Mo

du

lato

r

Bus

Serial data

(digital CMOS)

10+ GBps

$

DMA

DRAM

ctrl

DRAM

I/F

test PMU bias dc/dc

PLL

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Photonics offers coherent

sensitivity with

applications in sensing,

spectroscopy and long-

haul data-com

Electronics

Low-cost ASICs provide

accessible wireless and

digital processing power

imec Offers low-cost

industrialization

pathways for both

CMOS ASICs and

PICs

Substream

Innovation

Business Model

Enabling innovation

in a fragmented

market

LOW COST PHOTONICS IC PROTOTYPING MULTI-PROJECT WAFERS (MPWs)

ISiPP50G

20 samples

25mm2,

40k€

25

COMMITTED TO

MAKING GREAT

PRODUCTS HAPPEN