Adolite launched and demonstrated at OFC 2018, its new technology to help providers keep up with accelerating data growth. The company’s patent-pending process replaces embedded fibre with polymer, which it says will deliver sophisticated, high-performance optical transceivers, active optical cable (AOC) and on-board optics (OBO) — at 100G, 400G and beyond.
Existing transceiver designs can be complex, requiring time-consuming and error-prone production processes owing to multiple lenses, fibre-alignment challenges and complicated assembly. Adolite embeds optical waveguides and electrical circuits into a single layer of polymer flexible printed circuit board (FPC) and directly integrate lasers and photo diodes onto the FPC using flip-chip bonding techniques. The company says this simplified physical structure is more flexible and routable at the board level, and can help streamline the production process.
The new starter also recently joined the Consortium for On-Board Optics (COBO), where it collaborates with high-performance switch manufacturers, operators, sub-system builders, component makers, system integrators and others in the optics ecosystem to lend leadership and expertise to advance bandwidth growth beyond 400G.