18 May 2018

Kaiam partners with Broadex for manufacturing and supply of transceiver modules in China

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Kaiam Corp of Newark, CA, USA (which makes optical transceivers for hyperscale data centers) has agreed a partnership for optical module maker Broadex Technologies Co Ltd of Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, China to manufacture and supply high-end transceivers into the China market.

The two firms have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for furthering cooperation on volume production of QSFP28 100G-CWDM4 transceivers based on Kaiam’s LightScale2 platform. Kaiam claims that the LightScale2 architecture has fundamental advantages in cost and performance and is suited to high-volume applications. The agreement allows Broadex to manufacture these units in China and directly address Chinese customers who require local production. This also complements Kaiam’s in-house manufacturing in the Livingston, Scotland, UK and provides further capacity to address the high-volume data-center market.

“We anticipate very strong demand for 100G transceivers based on our LightScale2 technology,” says Dietmar Zapf, Kaiam’s general manager & VP of manufacturing. “In addition to the production lines already running at our Livingston, UK facility, we need to develop and secure further expanded capacity for manufacturing these products in high volume. The MOU signed with Broadex would allow us to leverage Broadex’s manufacturing expertise and infrastructure and expand our capacity in the next 3–6 months to meet high demand,” he adds.

“We are glad that Kaiam chose to continue working with us for manufacturing its new non-hermetic transceivers for data-center applications,” says Broadex VP & chief technology officer Yong Ding PhD. “We have been producing OSA-level components for Kaiam in high volumes for several years now. The LightScale2 platform is optimized to deliver maximum value and performance in the data-center environment at dramatically lower costs. We will work aggressively to quickly ramp to high volumes with high yields,” he adds.

“Kaiam is eagerly anticipating expansion into the China market with the assistance of our valued partners at Broadex,” says Jeremy Dietz, Kaiam’s VP of global sales & marketing. “The two companies will combine on business growth activities in and around China to strengthen Kaiam and Broadex’s market share in optical transceivers for data centers as well as PLCs [planar lightwave circuits] for 5G rollouts.”

The MOU includes details of mutual technology cooperation and manufacturing arrangements on timeline, cost roadmap, local sourcing and China market development.

See related items:

Kaiam shipping LightScale2 platform in volume for 100G CWDM4

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Visit: www.kaiam.com

Visit: www.broadex-tech.com