HyperLight Announces Thin-film Lithium Niobate Transmitter Chips Supporting Energy Efficient 1.6 Tbps Transceiver Modules

HyperLight, the leading provider of end-to-end photonic integrated circuits (PIC) solutions using thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) technology, has announced the launch of its new transmitter (Tx) PICs supporting 200 Gbits per lane in direct-detection datacenter transceivers and 1.6Tbits per wavelength in coherent communications links. HyperLight’s PICs feature CMOS-level drive voltages and ultrahigh electro-optic bandwidth that can enable down to 5 pJ/bit wall-plug efficiency while fitting into standard form factor transceivers.

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“The overall high performance of our TFLN PICs provides significant advantages in both direct-detection and coherent optical links”

With the exponential growth of internet data, cloud computing, and mobile networks, the demand for high-speed and low-energy consumption optical communication components is becoming more urgent. HyperLight’s Tx PICs, with high bandwidth, low insertion loss, and low drive voltage, are ideal for meeting these demanding requirements for power, speed, and cost.

Traditionally, high-performance solutions such as bulk lithium niobate have been used in the telecommunication industry, while lower cost solutions such as silicon photonics PICs are deployed in datacom applications. However, with the increase in machine learning/AI workloads and 5G networking demands, the requirements for both markets are merging, increasing further the demand for high performance and cost-effective solutions.

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HyperLight’s unique low-drive-voltage TFLN PIC platform enables both high performance and cost competitiveness on the same photonics platform, making it key to meet the demands of the 1.6 Tbps networking era. For datacom direct-detection links, HyperLight’s Tx PICs are demonstrated in 200 Gbps per lane 800G-DR4 OSFP modules. In addition, HyperLight’s PICs have the potential to be employed in direct linear drive standard form factor modules to reduce energy to 5 pJ/bit. For metro and telecom coherent links, HyperLight’s PICs are also demonstrated to support >240 GBaud owing to its ultrahigh electrical bandwidth.

“HyperLight’s TFLN PIC technology is an important technology to reduce the power and increase the performance of next generation high-speed optics modules,” said Hacene Chaouch, Distinguished Engineer at Arista Networks. “We are seeing power reductions of up to 20% compared to current data center optics technologies”

“We are seeing record setting performance on HyperLight’s TFLN PICs operating at 200 GBaud and beyond,” says David V. Plant, Canada Research Chair and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at McGill University. “These PICs are instrumental for next generation coherent links where energy consumption and speed are critical figures of merits.”

“The overall high performance of our TFLN PICs provides significant advantages in both direct-detection and coherent optical links” said Christian Reimer, Head of Product at HyperLight. “We are excited to see that our technology is providing our customers key advantages from datacenter, DCI to long-haul communications.”

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