TSMC (TSM.US), Ansys (ANSS.US) and Microsoft (MSFT.US) are teaming up to accelerate innovation in silicon photonics, which could bring major leaps in data communication and other fields.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSM.US), Ansys (ANSS.US) and Microsoft (MSFT.US) have announced a collaboration to accelerate the simulation and analysis of silicon photonic components by over 10x, bringing revolutionary advancements to silicon photonic integrated circuits (PIC) technology in data communication, biomedical tools, automotive LiDAR systems, and artificial intelligence.

In this collaboration, the three companies leveraged Nvidia accelerated computing technologies on Microsoft Azure NC A100v4 series virtual machines and Azure AI infrastructure to significantly improve the photonic simulation speed of Ansys Lumerical FDTD 3D electromagnetic simulation software. This advancement not only demonstrated the power of cloud infrastructure but also provided an ideal platform for the development of silicon-based PIC technology, which is crucial in ultra-large-scale data centers and Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

As a cutting-edge optical communication technology that enables longer and faster data transmission, silicon PIC technology poses challenges in simulating all possible parameter combinations due to the scale and complexity of silicon photonic solutions. However, through their collaboration with Ansys and Microsoft, they were able to effectively utilize the latest cloud infrastructure and technologies to provide powerful and accurate solutions and generate results in a short time.

John Lee, Vice President and General Manager of Ansys' Semiconductor, Electronics, and Optics Business, said that the collaboration accelerated the development of high-speed optical data transmission technologies, one of the most significant challenges in today's chip design field.

With the scalability of Azure cloud, Ansys' software provides a powerful platform for the development of silicon photonic integrated circuit technology, indicating new opportunities for PIC technology in data communication, biomedical tools, automotive LiDAR systems, and artificial intelligence.