This achievement follows more than a year of focused design and process optimization on OpenLight's Process Design Kit (PDK) platform, in collaboration with Tower Semiconductor. As a result, OpenLight has made significant progress in its 448G EAM technology, demonstrating a 3 dB differential bandwidth approaching 100 GHz and an extinction ratio (ER) exceeding 3.5 dB at 2.0 volts differential. These results enable robust performance at terabit data rates while maintaining energy efficiency and ease of manufacture. This highly integrated PIC solution is ideal not only for module and transceiver applications but also for the emerging co-packaged optics (CPO) and near-packaged optics (NPO) sectors, where energy efficiency, thermal performance, and packaging simplicity are critical.
OpenLight's 3.2T DR8 PICs, enabled by their high-bandwidth, low-turn-on EAM 448G technology, eliminate the need for externally coupled continuous-wave (CW) laser sources and significantly simplify packaging requirements. Achieving approximately 90% coupling efficiency between the active elements and the silicon waveguide, along with the InP EAM's low 2V turn-on voltage, OpenLight offers an extremely power-efficient solution. At full 3.2T operation, the PIC's power dissipation is less than 2W at 80°C, corresponding to approximately 0.63 pJ/bit, representing a substantial improvement in thermal efficiency over previous generation designs.
Building on this platform, OpenLight introduces the 3.2T DR8 PIC as an extension of the same architecture used for its 1.6T DR8 PIC. This enables a consistent and scalable design approach across data rate generations and allows customers to leverage a common platform for fast and seamless deployments from 1.6T to 3.2T. All active components in the PH18DA platform, including those used in the 3.2T DR8 PIC, have been independently qualified to the Telcordia GR-468 standard, providing added assurance for deployment in high-reliability data centers.
“We are very excited to offer our customers a 3.2T solution thanks to our strong collaboration with OpenLight,” said Dr. Ed Preisler, Vice President and General Manager of the RF Business Unit at Tower Semiconductor. “Looking ahead, we see great potential for our PH18DA technology to expand our market by integrating lasers, EAMs, and other InP components within our silicon photonics platform.”
“The 3.2T DR8 PIC with 448G EAMs offers clear benefits in power efficiency, cost, and production time,” said Dr. Adam Carter, CEO of OpenLight. “The superior performance of our 448G EAMs enables a direct scalable path for our customers to move from 1.6T to 3.2T to 400G per lane and is ideal not only for DR8 and FR4 module and transceiver applications but also for emerging CPO and NPO applications.”
These platform improvements have also enabled continued progress on OpenLight's 1.6T DR8 PIC, with 224G EAM devices now in beta sampling offering LRO and LPO variants. OpenLight has received orders from major transceiver manufacturers to support builds and qualification programs, reflecting increasing customer adoption as designs move toward production.
Alpha samples of the 3.2T DR8 platform are available today, with wafers available immediately and an evaluation board with an integrated 448G modulator and driver via flip-chip expected by the end of March 2026. Beta samples of the 3.2T DR8 for module and transceiver qualification are expected to be available in the fourth quarter of 2026.
