CompoundTek Pte Ltd., a global foundry services company developing emerging silicon photonics (SiPh) solutions, announced the launch of its maiden SiPh test facility, the first such site in Southeast Asia. The new facility will offer production and engineering test services to commercial industry customers. Additionally, because the testing service is independent of CompoundTek’s foundry services, even companies that are not CompoundTek customers will be able to use the open testing platform. The facility, which will house SiPh on-wafer testing, has been designed to help developers find solutions to improve data-transmission capabilities used in data centers and in applications such as lidar and smart sensors. Established at CompoundTek’s Jurong East International Business Park office, the new testing hub's equipment will allow for fast and reproducible optical coupling, including 6-axis probe position optimization and polarization alignment; wafer probing for conventional DC and RF electrical testing in the optical domain; and support for both O- and C-band wavelengths. The facility will also enable testing of electro-optical components up to 67 GHz and is ideally suited for electro-optical components 400 Gb/s or higher. “With [the] added on-wafer level automated SiPh Optical/Electrical/RF testing facility, customers will be able to limit packaging costs to good dies only and avoid module packaging level testing turnaround time losses,” said K.S. Ang, CompoundTek’s chief operating officer.