Keysight, FormFactor, and CompoundTek Join Forces

Keysight Technologies Inc. — a technology company that aims to help enterprises, service providers, and governments accelerate innovation — has partnered with FormFactor Inc., a provider of test and measurement technologies along the full integrated circuit life cycle, and CompoundTek, a global foundry services company in emerging silicon photonic solutions, to accelerate integrated photonics innovations.

Silicon photonics multiply data transfer capacities while reducing power consumption and cost. While Silicon photonics offer an alternative to the limitations of traditional data center networking, they also introduce new design and test challenges for component and device manufacturers. Adoption is primarily dependent on an industrial ecosystem composed of new foundries, commercial modeling tools, and photonic test capabilities.

Keysight Measurement Solution for Integrated Photonics. Courtesy of: Keysight.

Keysight, FormFactor, and CompoundTek have jointly developed an advanced photonics on-wafer testing solution that delivers industry-first capabilities including automated alignment, simultaneous optical-optical, and optical-electrical device tests.

The FormFactor CM300xi-SiPh, with automated wafer level photonics positioning combined with Keysight’s industry standard IL/PDL engines and N7700A Photonics Application Suite, is designed to support wavelength repeatability of ±1.5 pm at two-way sweeps up to 200 nm/s within 1240 nm to 1650 nm to ensure accuracy and repeatability from O-band to L-band.

Keysight’s N4373E 67 GHz Lightwave Component Analyzer delivers bandwidth for both optical receiver testing and optical transmitter testing with guaranteed specifications for electro-optical S-parameter measurements for device traceability.

Keysight’s PathWave software platform is designed to provide a consistent user experience, common data formats, and control interfaces. FormFactor’s SiPh software enables automated calibrations and alignments and simplifies integration with Keysight’s PathWave software platform, as well as optical instrumentation, to ensure ease of use.

Silicon photonics also delivers benefits for industrial segments such as intra data center communication and data center interconnects, telecom, 5G and automotive connectivity, high-performance computing, lidar, and sensing and medical applications.

“Innovation in optics is critical to connect the world and help the industry to monetize 5G, as well as data center and telecom services,” said Joachim Peerlings, vice president of Network and Data Center Solutions at Keysight Technologies. “Advancing in speed as well as power and cost efficiency requires a tightly connected ecosystem to jointly solve the challenges ahead. We are pleased with our partnerships and progress of enabling this ecosystem through our unmatched photonics test expertise.”

CompoundTek plans to establish a state-of-the-art silicon photonics testing services hub in Singapore. The company’s chief operating officer, K.S. Ang, said the added on-wafer level, automated silicon photonics optical, electrical, and RF testing will help customers limit packaging costs to avoid module packaging level testing turnaround time losses. “This test solution complements our current services in mass production volume with fast cycle-time, offered alongside world-class commercial foundry capabilities that accelerate time-to-market to achieve customers’ commercialization goals,” Ang said.