POET Technologies Inc., the designer and developer of the POET Optical Interposer and Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) for the data center and tele-communication markets, today announced a collaboration with Liobate Technologies to incorporate advanced Thin-Film Lithium Niobate (“TFLN”) modulators onto POET’s Optical Engines supporting power-efficient ultra-high-bandwidth electro-optic conversion for data center and telecom applications. This multi-phase, co-development project is initially focused on delivering and commercializing a POET 400/800Gps Transmit and Receive Optical Engine.
“We are very pleased to be working with one of the leading companies in TFLN modulators,” said Dr. Suresh Venkatesan, Chairman and CEO of POET Technologies. “Of all the materials currently under development for high-speed modulators, including monolithic silicon, indium phosphide and advanced polymers, we believe that TFLN offers the most promise for early commercial deployment and potential long-term success. The POET Optical Interposer platform is a hybrid integration platform, which provides the flexibility to utilize the most appropriate modulator for specific applications. We are pursuing multiple paths for light modulation, including silicon, TFLN-based electro-optic modulators, as well as Directly Modulated Lasers (DML) that do not require a separate modulating device. Our goal is to match components to the superior optical and electrical performance characteristics of the POET Optical Interposer, enabling POET to introduce ground-breaking performance in Optical Engines and Optical Interposer-based photonic integrated circuits for high-speed transceivers and co-packaged optics applications.”
Historically, Lithium Niobate has been one of the most mature, reliable and low-cost substances used in modulators, but because of its bulk and low power efficiency, it has not been widely used in high-speed, high-density optical interconnects in cloud datacenters. Known for its inherent high bandwidth, low insertion loss, nonlinear optical qualities and extreme reliability, it was not until the recent development of Thin-Film Lithium Niobate by a small number of companies globally that the use of this material is now enabling new applications in millimeter wave data communications, telecommunications, sensing and quantum computing.