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According to a report in the Taiwanese press, NVIDIA and TSMC have developed a silicon photonics-based chip prototype. TSMC is one of the world’s leading contract chip manufacturers, and thanks in part to Intel’s problems, it has established itself as the most advanced chip manufacturer on the planet. Silicon photonics is an emerging chip manufacturing technology that combines photonic and conventional circuits to overcome the physical limitations of semiconductor manufacturing. According to the report, this prototype was developed late last year, and NVIDIA and TSMC are also working on optical packaging technology to improve the performance of AI chips.
NVIDIA and TSMC are working on advanced packaging technology, says report
The minimum gate pitch and metal pitch for the 2-nanometer node, TSMC’s latest chip manufacturing technology, are believed to be 45 nanometers and 20 nanometers, respectively. In semiconductor manufacturing, gate pitch measures the distance between two gates on a chip, and metal pitch measures the distance between two metal interconnects. Gates control the flow of electrons across transistors, and interconnects ensure communication between transistors on a chip.
These dimensions are collectively referred to as the 2-nanometer process technology node. However, the increasing complexity of reducing these distances means it is difficult for chip makers such as TSMC to significantly increase the number of transistors on a single chip. To overcome these limitations, one technology that is gaining interest in the industry is silicon photonics.
Silicon photonics uses photonic transistors, or integrated circuits, to replace electrons with photons, or particles of light, for communication within a chip. These transistors increase bandwidth and frequency, increasing the data rate and amount of processing.
These transistors are of interest to the industry in today’s era of diminishing returns from advanced chip manufacturing techniques because they can significantly increase processing speed without requiring advanced manufacturing techniques.
According to a report from Taiwan’s UDN, AI chip giant NVIDIA is also among the companies gaining interest. NVIDIA and TSMC claim to have developed the first silicon photonic chip prototype late last year. In addition to prototypes, the report claims that NVIDIA and TSMC are also working on opto-electronic integration technology and advanced packaging.
Optoelectronic integration aligns with silicon photonics to integrate components that manage light, such as lasers and photodiodes, and components that handle electrons, such as transistors, on the same wafer.
TSMC is NVIDIA’s primary manufacturing partner for its latest chips. Because the Taiwanese factory’s stable production and high yields have made TSMC a preferred partner for the world’s leading technology companies. NVIDIA’s AI chips are industry leaders in performance, but constraints such as packaging capabilities and high prices limit supply.
