technology laser manufacturing
rhombus4
Unlocking the Value of Fab
Ownership
The benefits of fab ownership will increasingly outweigh the disadvantages as component
manufacturers meet the challenges of lower cost and higher transmission speeds by pushing
design and test complexity back to the chip level argues Oclaro’s Andy Carter.
F
ab or Fabless? The question has been asked many Why have a fab?...
times over the last ten years by everyone seeking Owning a fabrication facility is expensive, and significant
to make compound semiconductor optoelectronic volume and scale are needed to allow cost recovery and
devices. There is no doubt that the era has passed when profitability. Many companies have sought ways of
the first item on a start-up shopping list was a fabrication reducing this overhead by outsourcing fabrication, giving
facility....but what about companies with well established quick benefits to the bottom line. However, several
fabs, such as Oclaro? Are their fabs cash and overhead aspects of the industry are now changing, and we believe
drains, or are they the key to deliver growth and this alters the balance significantly.
Fig 1: profitability now that the market is warming up and many
Fabrication component requirements are still differentiated on There has been and continues to be consolidation,
process for the performance and footprint? The view of the management so fewer players are driving higher volumes through their
Oclaro at Oclaro is that fab ownership offers compelling facilities. In addition, many applications are demanding
DSDBR laser advantages, and once a certain scale is reached, it is significant levels of photonic integration – not necessarily
involves three highly differentiating and cost effective. In addition, it acts large scale multi-channel photonic integrated circuits
growth stages as a significant barrier to entry for other players. (PICs), but integration of a number of elements, such
as lasers, monitor detectors and modulators to drive down
footprint and cost whilst delivering best in class
performance at the right module level cost point.
Component companies seek differentiation in cost,
performance and time to market. Ownership of a fab must
enable all three aspects to be of full benefit. Time to
market benefits can be achieved through utilisation of
common and verified building blocks and processes with
which devices are built. This is increasingly important, as
higher levels of integration are required to meet the
functionality demanded.
At Oclaro, we have adopted such an approach to
integration. We utilse multiple ‘etch and regrowth’
processes to fabricate components – three in the case of
a tunable laser and five for integrated laser modulators.
Such an approach to device fabrication is often targeted
for avoidance by outsource advocates, due to complexity
and yield issues, whereas our investment in processes
and procedures, such as regrowth initiation and surface
34
www.compoundsemiconductor.net January/February 2010
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87