Avicena partners with TSMC to make its microLED links

TSMC, the leading semiconductor foundry, will make the photo-detectors used for Avicena Tech’s microLED optical interconnect technology.

Christoph Pfistner

Avicena is developing an optical interface that uses hundreds of parallel fibre links - each link comprising a tiny LED tranmitter and a silicon photo-detector receiver - to deliver terabit-per-second (Tbps) data transfers.

Avicena is targeting its microLED-based interconnect, dubbed LightBundle, for artifical intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) applications.

The deal is a notable step for Avicena, aligning its technology with TSMC’s CMOS manufacturing prowess. The partnership will enable Avicena to transition its technology from in-house prototyping to high-volume production.

Click to read more ...

Using LED-based parallelism for fast optical interconnects

Avicena Tech has demonstrated what it claims is the world's smallest one-terabit optical transceiver. And the company will reveal more about how it is advancing its optical technology for volume production at the upcoming OFC event in San Diego in March.

Christoph Pfistner demonstrating the microLED-based 1Tbps interface at Supercomputing 23 in Denver, Colorado.

The interface technology uses compact light emitting diodes (LED). The interface uses an array of these microLEDs that emit light vertically into a bundle of multimode optical fibres.

Avicena demonstrated its 1 terabit-per-second (Tbps) interface at the recent Supercomputing 23 show in Colorado last November. Its interface used 304 LED-based optical channels, each carrying 3.3 gigabit-per-second (Gbps) of data for a total bandwidth of one terabit.

Click to read more ...