Scaling silicon photonics testing hinges on test infrastructure

Semiconductor Engineering examines why high-volume silicon photonics production demands new test infrastructure: automated six-axis fiber alignment, polarization control, and concurrent optical and electrical measurements. Without it, test becomes a throughput bottleneck rather than a simple quality gate.

• Optical testing needs active six-axis alignment to maximize coupling efficiency
• Optical and electrical measurements must run concurrently to avoid added test time
• Polarization and channel-to-channel variation complicate separating device defects from setup error
• A full solution spans testers, probers, fiber interfaces, and optical instruments from multiple vendors