三星电子被曝选用与台积电相同的硅光探针台供应商（FormFactor、MPI），拟年内完成 PIC 晶圆测试、2027 年推出硅光代工服务

Samsung Adopts the Same Silicon Photonics Development Partners as TSMC

Samsung Electronics has been found to have selected the same development partners as Taiwan's TSMC for silicon photonics, a technology that uses light to reduce semiconductor bottlenecks, heat, and power consumption. On this basis, the company plans to complete wafer testing of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for silicon photonics within the year.

According to industry sources on the 7th, Samsung Electronics is testing PIC wafers for silicon photonics using probe stations from FormFactor of the United States and MPI of Taiwan, both test interface companies. Optical and electrical measurement equipment is linked to the probe stations to measure the wavelength domain and the frequency domain. The key is to verify that the optical devices implemented on the wafer transmit light as designed and convert between electrical and optical signals.

A probe station is a piece of equipment used to measure the characteristics of semiconductor devices. It holds a wafer or an individual die in place and brings probes that carry electrical signals into contact with the electrodes, connecting them to external measurement equipment. Probe stations for silicon photonics add the capability to precisely align optical fibers with the optical input and output ports of the PIC. Once the measurement equipment injects optical and electrical signals and measures the output, the probe station moves the wafer to repeat the inspection on the next die.

An industry source said, "Samsung Electronics is evaluating PIC wafers in house with the goal of completing the work within the year," adding that "it is using the two probe station vendors that passed TSMC's equipment qualification for CPO and silicon photonics testing." In effect, Samsung is verifying its PICs with the same test infrastructure used by the industry leader.

TSMC uses probe stations from FormFactor and MPI for the development and verification of COUPE (Co-Packaged Optical Engine), its silicon photonics based CPO platform. To date, these are the only two companies that have passed TSMC's qualification for CPO related test equipment.

Since last year, Samsung Electronics has had its PIC wafers verified by outside parties such as imec, the Belgian semiconductor research institute. It has now built its own test environment and is conducting repeated evaluations. This is an optimization stage in which the company evaluates the performance of PIC wafers based on initial designs and feeds the measurement results back into the design.

Preparations for customer evaluations are also under way in parallel. Global networking and communications chip companies such as Broadcom are being mentioned as prospective customers. In its first quarter earnings release this year, Samsung Electronics announced that it had won a project from a major optical communications module company, securing a foundation for its silicon photonics business. It said it would begin mass production for the project in the second half of the year.

A PIC integrates optical devices such as waveguides, through which light travels; modulators, which convert electrical signals into optical signals by loading them onto light; and photodetectors, which convert optical signals back into electrical signals. Samsung Electronics measures wavelength domain and frequency domain characteristics to optimize optical loss, response by wavelength, and bandwidth.

After PIC testing, the company plans to expand the scope of testing to optical engines that combine an electronic integrated circuit (EIC) with the PIC. The EIC is a chip that processes and amplifies electrical signals to drive the optical devices on the PIC. The EIC and PIC are stacked and combined with the optical path that connects to external optical fibers to form a single optical engine. Optical engine testing is expected to add time domain measurements to verify actual high speed data transmission performance.

Samsung Electronics will launch its silicon photonics foundry service in 2027. It will provide process technology for implementing optical devices, an optical device library, and a process design kit (PDK). Customers will use these to design PICs, which Samsung Foundry will then manufacture in wafer form. Development of the optical engine combining the EIC and PIC will begin this year, with testing to start next year.

The ultimate plan is to package the optical engine together with logic and high bandwidth memory (HBM). In a mockup unveiled recently, Samsung Electronics showed a structure in which a logic chip and an optical engine are placed together on a silicon interposer. Inside the optical engine, the PIC and EIC are stacked in three dimensions (3D) using methods such as hybrid bonding to shorten the connection distance. Going forward, the company plans to expand the scope of CPO from network switches to GPUs and CPUs.

Choi Won kyoung, Vice President of the Advanced Package Lab at Samsung Electronics' Semiconductor R&D Center, said at Nano Korea in July, "We are currently developing optical devices such as PICs ourselves," adding, "We plan to focus on developing an optical engine that integrates the EIC, PIC, and optical connection into one, enter the silicon photonics market, and then expand the application to switch, GPU, and CPU products."