Ayar Labs raises $35 million to develop light-based chip interconnects
Summary
Ayar Labs is leveraging novel silicon processing techniques to develop high-speed, high-density, low-power optical-based interconnect “chiplets” to replace traditional I/O. Today, the company raised $35 million for product development and commercialization of its in-package optical interconnect solution. Ayar claims its solution — which is based on a decade of research and collaboration between MIT; the University of California, Berkeley; and Colorado University Boulder — overcomes the power and performance scaling challenges of semiconductors, as well as the interconnect bandwidth bottleneck between those devices. Photonic circuits like Ayar’s, which are also being investigated by startups like Lightelligence, LightOn, and Lightmatter, require only a limited amount of energy because light produces far less heat than electricity. For instance, Ayar’s TeraPhy chiplet is theoretically capable of tens of terabytes per second of bandwidth, thanks to a modular multiport design with ports carrying eight channels of light.