News: Optoelectronics
9 September 2020
POET signs development & supply agreement with European optical systems company for 400G data-center application
POET Technologies Inc of Toronto, Ontario, Canada — designer and developer of the POET Optical Interposer and photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for the data-center and telecom markets — has signed a development and supply agreement with a “leading European optical systems company with global operations for a 400G data-center application”.
The contract includes a nominal amount of non-recurring engineering (NRE) funding to design optical engines based on the POET Optical Interposer for a 400G application, along with a purchase order for initial production units. The design and development stage is expected to extend through March 2021, with production planned for June, consistent with the firm’s recently updated roadmap presented at its shareholder meeting held on 26 August. The customer is a provider of optical networking systems for data-center and enterprise applications. However, due to confidentiality, their name and the specifics of the end application cannot be disclosed.
Also, as highlighted at the recent shareholder meeting by CEO Dr Suresh Venkatesan, unprecedented levels of demand are driving massive investments in global internet infrastructure. 400G represents the next generation of optical interconnect solutions for datacoms, now in the initial stages of adoption by cloud data-center operators. POET says that such demand translates directly to fiber and related optical devices, including for optical engines based on the Optical Interposer, a platform that — using wafer-level semiconductor manufacturing techniques and packaging methods — integrates diverse electronic and photonic components into a single chip-scale device at lower cost and higher performance.
“The agreement is further evidence of the expanding customer interest in POET’s optical engines and the pace at which our product development is progressing,” says president & general manager Vivek Rajgarhia. “Over the next several months, we expect demand from additional customers will increase further as we continue to demonstrate the full capabilities of the Optical Interposer,” he adds. “Our platform utilizes a novel approach to integrating key electronic, photonic and optical components into a full transmit and receive optical engine, broadly applicable to data-center and telecommunications products. We look forward to reporting our progress on a regular basis and announcing additional customer engagements and partnerships as we are able.”
