POET Technologies Inc. (TSX Venture: PTK; NASDAQ: POET) says it has delivered samples to multiple lead customers of its 200G FR4 transmit (TX) and receive (RX) optical engines, which leverage the POET Optical Interposer. The devices shipped from Super Photonics, POET Technologies’ manufacturing joint venture with Sanan IC. The company expects both optical engines to be in production at Super Photonics by the end of the year.
The 200G FR4 TX device integrates four DMLs, each operating at 50 Gbps, in combination with a low-loss arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) based multiplexer that is monolithically integrated on the Optical Interposer. Built-in monitor photodiodes provide active power monitoring. The 200G FR4 RX counterpart is similarly configured, with the exception of four photodetectors in place of the DMLs and a demultiplexer in place of the mux. A single-mode optical fiber with LC connector on each device enables integration in a 200GBASE-FR4 transceiver module. The engines are sized to enable 2x200GBASE-FR4 designs within a QSFP56 optical transceiver form factor.
“We see significant customer interest in 200GBASE-FR4 transceivers and are excited to start sampling our Optical Engines for this application,” said Raju Kankipati, vice president of product line management at POET Technologies. “Our highly integrated optical engines will enable customers to offer cost-effective and scalable 200GBASE-FR4 and 2x200GBASE-FR4 transceivers to cloud data center end customers. We, through our joint venture, Super Photonics, have started sampling multiple lead customers, who we expect to work closely with through their transceiver design completion phase.”
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The news of the 200G optical engine sampling comes shortly after POET Technologies revealed that it is sampling 400G devices as well (see “POET Technologies unveils optical engines for 400G FR4 and 800G”). Suresh Venkatesan, chairman and CEO of the company, told Lightwave earlier this week that the company has initiatives underway to expand the functionality of the Optical Interposer. For example, the company has developed designs that feature integrated electronics – a driver in one instance and a transimpedance amplifier (TIA) in another – that he expects to be able to demonstrate during the fourth quarter of this year. The Optical Interposer also is being redesigned to accept third-party DMLs.
The current development roadmap should take the company into at least 1.6-Tbps applications, according to Venkatesan. Meanwhile, he has his eyes on expanding into coherent transmission applications as well. While stating at OFC 2022 this past March that the Optical Interposer could give POET Technologies an entry into co-packaged optics, Venkatesan appeared this week to be more bullish on pluggables for such applications, certainly at 1.6 Tbps and perhaps even 3.2 Tbps, as well as his company’s prospects for supporting their development.
Venkatesan added that companies in the LiDAR and defense spaces have expressed interest in partnering with POET Technologies as well.
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