Coherent showcased its latest innovations at OFC 2026, highlighting how its broad and deep vertical technology stack, spanning materials, devices, modules and systems enables hyperscalers to scalable AI infrastructure, which is power, space and cost efficient. In particular, its multi-rail architecture addresses power and footprint constraints, enabling more efficient scaling within existing data centre environments.
The company presented advancements across co-packaged optics (CPO), pluggable transceivers, 400G-per-lane optical links, optical circuit switching and multi-rail transport, as well as thermal management technologies, drawing strong engagement at booth 1401 throughout the three-day event.
CPO demonstrations showcase multiple technology approaches
Coherent demonstrated three distinct CPO technology platforms to support rapidly growing bandwidth demands of AI and high-performance computing infrastructure: a 6.4 Tbit/s (32×200G) socketed CPO based on silicon photonics paired with Coherent's external laser source module powered by its own high-power InP continuous-wave lasers; a multimode socketed CPO built with Coherent's high-speed VCSELs; and an InP modulator array with integrated SOA. operating at 400G.
The InP-based demonstration featured a 400G-per-lane InP modulator array, illustrating a pathway toward higher lane speeds and the scalability required for future CPO architectures. All photonic components are manufactured in-house by Coherent.
"As with most early-stage solutions, CPO will be explored in various scale-out and scale-up scenarios by our customers," said Dr Lee Xu, Executive Vice President for Data Center at Coherent. "With these demonstrations, we are reaffirming our commitment to support our customers with the technologies they choose as data centre architectures continue to evolve."
Coherent is a founding member of the Open CPX MSA (Open Co-Packaging Multi-Source Agreement) to develop specifications for optical engines required to enable a broad ecosystem of interoperable co-packaged and near-package interconnect solutions.
Next generation pluggable transceivers
Coherent is shipping 1.6 Tbit/s transceivers and demonstrated multiple platforms at OFC, showcasing a comprehensive portfolio of next-generation pluggable optical technologies spanning 1.6T, 3.2T and emerging architectures for 12.8T and beyond.
"AI infrastructure is driving an accelerated transition to higher-speed pluggable architectures. By demonstrating performance across 1.6T, 3.2T and emerging platforms like XPO for 12.8T and beyond, and across multiple optical and DSP technologies, we are reinforcing Coherent's role as a trusted innovation partner for next-generation data centre connectivity," Dr. Xu said.
The demonstrations highlighted Coherent's multi-technology platform strategy encompassing silicon photonics, indium phosphide and VCSEL-based solutions designed to enable scalable, power-efficient connectivity for AI-driven data centre infrastructure. Coherent presented multiple 1.6T transceivers featuring different optical technologies: silicon photonics, photonic integrated circuit, high-power InP CW laser, 200G InP EML and 200G GaAs VCSEL.
The demonstrations included three different DSP solutions from three industry leaders and multiple types of electrical interfaces, all in the OSFP form factor.
Jitendra Patil, Director of Product Management, demonstrating Coherent's 1.6T transceiver portfolio at the booth, said the company offers broad flexibility across DSP partners. "We have all the options available, so our customers can pick and choose. With all the supply constraints, we're making sure we have all the options relevant for customers," Patil said.
The choice of architecture remains application and customer-dependent. "Some customers are preferring LRO, some customers are going to DR straight away. It really depends on how they're designing their networks. There is no one-size-fits-all," Patil added.
New XPO Pluggable MSA form factor
Looking ahead, Coherent demonstrated the new XPO pluggable MSA form factor, showcasing a live 3.2 Tbit/s XPO module with liquid cooling featuring 16 channels at 200 Gbit/s per lane to enhance system design agility while optimising power and performance.
The demonstration included eight channels in loopback mode and eight channels interoperating with traditional 1.6T transceivers. The XPO form factor measures approximately 60 mm, representing a more compact profile than traditional modules while maintaining total fibre count. Cold water flows through the module to remove heat generated during operation.
The technology targets data centre hyperscaler and AI applications, with multiple major players including Arista developing switch architectures to accommodate the form factor.
400G per lane silicon photonics breakthrough
Coherent demonstrated what it described as an industry first: a high-performance 400G per lane optical link enabling next-generation switch ASIC connectivity at 400G per lane leveraging both 400G differential EML and a silicon photonics PIC implementation based on Coherent's 400G pure silicon PN junction Mach-Zehnder modulator.
The 400G per lane demonstrations were presented as capability statements for future designs based on silicon photonics platforms. "There's still some work to do to bring this to a deliverable product, but these two demos prove the capability of Coherent's design team to enable the market transition to 400G per lane, while opening the path towards scalable photonics solutions. It's a statement that we can do 400G per lane using silicon photonics in the future."
Thanks to its differential design that effectively doubles the signal amplitude, the D-EML demonstration showed significantly lower overall power consumption while minimising crosstalk.
Coherent's silicon photonics design team has developed multiple generations including 400G, 800G and 1.6T, with development moving toward 3.2T using silicon photonics platforms.
Both the 400G/lane demos incorporate in-house photodiodes at the receiver side enabling a complete end-to-end solution.
InP technology portfolio
Coherent highlighted the breadth and scalability of its indium phosphide innovations at OFC 2026, showcasing a broad comprehensive portfolio of lasers, modulators, photodiodes and subsystems that power next-generation data centre architectures through both pluggable transceivers and CPO solutions. As AI-driven infrastructure accelerates demand for higher speeds and greater energy efficiency, InP technology remains foundational to enabling high-performance optical engines, according to Coherent. “Ramping 6’’ InP production across our fabs in the U.S. and Europe can reinforce the supply continuity and scalability for customers deploying next-generation optical systems”, said Dr. Sanjai Parthasarathi, CMO at Coherent Corp.
Multi-rail platform enables capacity expansion
Coherent’s multi-rail demonstration represents the third generation of technology evolution over the past two years, transmitting signals through 700 km of fibre on the booth to showcase compactness, low power consumption and reduced heat generation.
Richard Riffel, Vice President of Product Management, demonstrating the multi-rail technology at Coherent's booth, explained the approach enables one physical device to be virtually divided into multiple versions. A dynamic gain equaliser, which historically could adjust one fibre and band, can now be broken up into eight or 16 virtual DGEs through Coherent's integrated C-band and L-band technology expansion, allowing 16 fibres to run through the same footprint with identical electrical power and physical size.
"You can think of it as amortising a fixed device footprint over more and more fibre pairs, which means more and more capacity," Riffel said. The technology operates in both C-band and L-band, with the same hardware supporting 16 fibres to run through the same footprint with identical electrical power and physical size.
Coherent also demonstrated multi-pump laser packages, placing two or more pump laser chips in a single package to reduce physical size. The uncooled pumps require less power by eliminating thermoelectric coolers and can operate at higher temperatures, reducing cooling requirements.
Riffel said Coherent works closely with hyperscalers to showcase leading-edge capabilities. "They're coming to us to get the state-of-the-art of the technology. Irrespective of which vendor they go to turn it into a product, they know the technology is out there and capable for what they need to specify."
Coherent demonstrated next-generation multi-rail enhancements with new advancements in multi-rail optical transport dramatically increasing fibre capacity and system efficiency, achieving four rails in 1RU for scale-across networks.
Thermal management solutions debut
For the first time at OFC, Coherent showcased thermal management technologies addressing heat generation (pictured below), a key constraint on data centre growth. The thermal management portfolio includes ThermaditeTM for liquid-cooled plates; 300 mm silicon carbide wafers and diamond wafers for heat spreading in GPU and XPU devices.
Coherent also demonstrated innovative thermal energy harvesting technology using bismuth telluride-based thermoelectric materials to generate electricity from waste heat created in data centres. These thermoelectric generators can convert waste heat into usable electrical power to improve system-level efficiency.
Industry thought leadership at OFC 2026
Coherent executives played prominent roles across OFC's most influential stages. CEO, Jim Anderson participated in the Optica Executive Forum CEO panel, while CTO Dr Julie Eng took part in a fireside chat with CTOs and delivered a plenary session on "Scaling the Optical Future: Optical Technologies Driving AI, Data Centers and Communications Networks".
Dr Sanjai Parthasarathi, Chief Marketing Officer at Coherent, moderated a session on scale-out data centre networks alongside Coherent’s Vipul Bhatt.
Dr. Julie Eng delivered a plenary talk on the optical technologies enabling the next wave of AI-driven data centre and communications networks.
Dr. Anna Tatarczak gave an invited presentation on datacom subsystems and systems.
Dr. Sanjai Parthasarathi also spoke at the Yole Market Event on “Scaling Datacom Optical Technologies for Next Generation Networks”.
Coherent further contributed to the Market Watch program and workshops, with key speakers at the OCP session, GSA & IEEE special event, and Data Center Summit, reinforcing the company’s perspective on scaling optical technologies for next-generation networks.
