Prominent industry corporations unveiled innovative new products, research, and collaborations at Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC 2022). Below is a short list of the press releases shared by exhibitors present. 

Other Exhibitor News can be found at: ofcconference.org

EFFECT Photonics Acquires Coherent Optical Digital Signal Processing Business from Viasat

Has Become the Most Highly Vertically Integrated, Independent Coherent Optical Module Vendor

At OFC 2022, EFFECT Photonics, a leading provider of highly integrated optical communication products is announcing that it signed a definitive agreement to acquire coherent optical digital signal processing (DSP) and forward error correction (FEC) technology as well as a highly experienced engineering team from global communications company, Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT).

Viasat is a long-established player in DSP and FEC technology. With eight generations of design IP, they have a proven track record of delivering successful field deployments.

From this acquisition, EFFECT Photonics will now own the entire coherent technology stack of all optical functions, including a high-performance tunable laser, together with DSP and FEC. This will enable the Company to deliver on its ambition to make high performance coherent communications solutions widely accessible and affordable. Furthermore, it will enable longer term economic and environmentally sustainable communications due to the ability to deliver high-end performance and reach within a small footprint and with lower power consumption. This opens the way to drive coherent technology into new places, revolutionizing the way the world interconnects.

This transaction is expected to provide the following customer benefits: EFFECT Photonics will be able to optimize the complete solution for any application addressing both existing challenges and new possibilities; With full ownership of the key optical, DSP and FEC functions, EFFECT Photonics can offer seamless integration, cost efficiency and security of supply; EFFECT photonics will be an independent vendor able to offer a full portfolio of building blocks such as the tunable laser and DSP, and/or complete solutions, increasing the choice reduced by recent mergers and acquisitions in the industry; EFFECT Photonics has also secured an additional $20M in Series-C funding bringing the total to $63M. Additionally, pursuant to the DSP acquisition agreement, Viasat will be joining EFFECT Photonics’ Supervisory Board and hold a minority interest in the Company.

“This is a significant step in accelerating our ambition to make coherent optical communications ubiquitous and further drive our product portfolio growth. We look forward to welcoming the team of highly skilled and experienced design architects and engineers who will be joining us to drive the development of energy efficient, high performance and affordable coherent solutions.

With all the recent changes in the industry landscape, this means that EFFECT Photonics is the only independent vendor able to deliver both the active optical components and the DSP. This will offer the market more choice and the ability to source superior solutions.” – James Regan, CEO EFFECT Photonics.

“Given the trend of the fiber optic communications industry towards consolidation to provide vertically integrated end-to-end solutions, we believe that combining Viasat’s assets and capabilities with the unique integrated photonics capabilities of EFFECT Photonics will create substantially more market opportunities and better products. By investing in this Netherlands-headquartered company, we will also further expand our presence in Europe and be able to partner with EFFECT to bring state-of-the-art integrated photonics to Viasat’s own customers.” – Russell Fuerst, business area leader and vice president, Viasat.

About EFFECT Photonics

EFFECT Photonics delivers highly integrated optical communications products based on its Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) optical System-on-Chip technology. The key enabling technology for DWDM systems is full monolithic integration of all photonic components within a single chip and being able to produce these in volume with high yield at low cost. With this capability, EFFECT Photonics is addressing the need for affordable DWDM solutions driven by the soaring demand for high bandwidth connections. EFFECT Photonics is headquartered in The Netherlands, with additional facilities in the UK, the US and Taiwan, and a worldwide network of sales partners. www.effectphotonics.com

About Viasat

Viasat is a global communications company that believes everyone and everything in the world can be connected. For more than 35 years, Viasat has helped shape how consumers, businesses, governments, and militaries around the world communicate. Today, the Company is developing the ultimate global communications network to power high-quality, secure, affordable, fast connections to impact people’s lives anywhere they are—on the ground, in the air or at sea. www.viasat.com

Accelerating the Speed of Light, euNetworks Deploys 7 Kilometres of Lumenisity® CoreSmart® Hollowcore Fibre Cable in London

A global first with the longest commercial deployment to date, and a route which is 30% faster than all equivalent regular fibre routes; second deployment in euNetworks’ hollowcore fibre development roadmap.


 euNetworks Fiber UK Limited (“euNetworks”), a Western European bandwidth infrastructure company, has deployed a seven-kilometre hollowcore fibre link between Interxion LON1: A Digital Realty Company data center, and The London Stock Exchange new data center in London’s Docklands, using ultra low latency CoreSmart® cable. Lumenisity® Limited (“Lumenisity”) supplied the award-winning CoreSmart cable which is based on NANF® hollowcore technology. Increasingly longer deployments are planned to support the demand for lower latencies.

Data travels 50% faster in hollowcore cable, reducing latency by 1/3, and providing a round trip saving of 3μs (three microseconds) per kilometre. These latency savings are hugely significant in financial trading applications. They can also be scaled to increase the separation of data centers by 50%, whilst maintaining the latency envelope, more than doubling the area of land in which these data centers can be located.

The route is the longest commercial deployment of hollowcore fibre technology, and its use is exclusive to euNetworks and its customers. Offering euTrade services, 10G and above, the route is 30% faster than all equivalent single mode cable. It’s the second deployment for euNetworks following delivery of the first hollowcore based commercial route in April 2021.

euNetworks continues to lead the market in innovatively delivering fibre-based, ultra-low latency services throughout Europe. Its euTrade solution is a dedicated network platform supporting the bandwidth needs of the financial services community. The company continues to optimize routes between all the key trading exchanges in Europe and is supporting major exchange moves this year. This focus ensures delivery of the shortest paths and lowest latencies available in the market.

“We’re very pleased to partner with euNetworks again on a new deployment in London, enabling them to deliver the lowest latency performance for their customers using our CoreSmart® cable,” said Tony Pearson, Vice President, Sales & Marketing at Lumenisity. “We are excited to develop our relationship with such a strong partner and provide a cable solution with increasingly longer reach with each development.”

“We’re excited to be moving through our roadmap of hollowcore fibre deployment with Lumenisity, leading the way in integrating new and innovative technology into our network,” said Paula Cogan, President, euNetworks. “We continue to be focused on delivering the best possible bandwidth solutions for our customers and look forward to deploying longer routes with Lumenisity in the coming quarters.”

About euNetworks

euNetworks is a critical bandwidth infrastructure company, owning and operating 17 fibre based metropolitan networks connected with a high-capacity intercity backbone covering 53 cities in 17 countries across Europe. The company leads the market in data center connectivity, directly connecting over 465 today. euNetworks is also a leading cloud connectivity provider and offers a targeted portfolio of metropolitan and long-haul services including Dark Fibre, Wavelengths, and Ethernet. Wholesale, finance, content, media, mobile, data center and enterprise customers benefit from euNetworks’ unique inventory of fibre and duct-based assets that are tailored to fulfil their high bandwidth needs. eunetworks.com

About Lumenisity® Limited

Lumenisity is an established independent company originally spun out from the world-renowned Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton. Formed in 2017 to commercialize breakthroughs in the development of hollowcore optical fibre at the ORC, the company has built a team of industry leaders and experts to realize their goal to be the world’s premier high-performance hollowcore fibre optic cable solutions provider offering their customers reliable, deployable, low latency and high bandwidth connections that unlock new capabilities in communication networks. Lumenisity®, NANF® and Coresmart® are registered trademarks of Lumenisity Limited. www.lumenisity.com

Jabil Photonics Strengthens Relationship with Nokia to Expand Transceiver Coherent Product Family

 Jabil announced that its Photonics business unit, a leading provider of customized design, manufacturing, and test solutions for optical communications products, presented a new transceiver to expand its coherent product family during the OFC 2022 conference and exhibition held in San Diego, CA.

The CFP2 DCO ECO version is a 100/200Gb/s coherent transceiver in a CFP2 form factor supporting both 100Gb/s and 200Gb/s line rates with framing and functionalities geared toward the most recent standardization agreements, including “open Forward Error Correction (O-FEC).” The coherent transceiver has been designed for 100G long haul and 200G metro regional networks.

The module is based on the latest digital signal processing (DSP) technology and Nokia’s CSTAR200+ silicon photonics optical engine to provide best-in-class optical performances and minimum power consumption. The coherent transceiver is compatible with both host systems developed for current 100G/200G modules, in addition to new ones designed for 400G CFP2 DCOs.

“The coherent silicon transmitter and receiver (CSTAR) portfolio of optical engines for 100G to 400G applications offers a highly compact form factor, low-power operations, and unprecedented performance that can be aligned into both pluggable and on-board form factors,” said Ed Englehart, GM Optical Sub-systems, Optical Networking for Nokia. “We are excited to engage with Jabil on their next generation of high-performance pluggable solutions.”

“Jabil Photonics continues to expand its coherent product family to fit customer requirements with the best solutions. The CFP2 DCO ECO is a second-generation module following the current first-generation module based on DSP 16nm and CSTAR-200, and significantly minimizes power consumption with the most recent DSP and optical engine technologies,” said Stefano Schiavoni, vice president and GM of Jabil’s Photonics business unit.

The CFP2 DCO ECO is currently available to sample and will be generally available mid-calendar year 2022. 

About Jabil

Jabil (NYSE: JBL) is a manufacturing solutions provider with over 260,000 employees across 100 locations in 30 countries. The world’s leading brands rely on Jabil’s unmatched breadth and depth of end-market experience, technical and design capabilities, manufacturing know-how, supply chain insights and global product management expertise. Driven by a common purpose, Jabil and its people are committed to making a positive impact on their local community and the environment. www.jabil.com 

Freedom Photonics and Vanguard Automation deploy 3D Nano Printed Chip-Scale Interconnect Manufacturing Capability

Freedom Photonics and Vanguard Automation announced the deployment of Vanguard Automation’s SONATA and REPRISE 1000 systems at Freedom Photonics’ facilities in Santa Barbara, CA. The two systems combined construct a fully automated photonic integration and packaging solution built upon 3D nano-print technology and enable the fabrication of low loss optical subsystem interconnects commonly known as Photonic Wire Bonds (PWBs). 

Freedom Photonics added Photonic Wire Bonding to its 21,000 square foot facility in Santa Barbara, where Freedom manufactures a wide range of photonic devices, including lasers, photodiodes, and photonic integrated circuits (PICs).  PWB technology adds a significant capability in optical subassembly manufacturing. Freedom will also offer PWBs as a manufacturing service.

Vanguard Automation augments 3D nano-print technology to create solutions for photonic packaging. The technology uses a 2-photon lithography process which creates waveguide optical interconnects between two components (PWBs), or fabricates facet attached micro-lenses (FAML) to couple light. In the case of PWBs, a cladding material adds an indexed filler which ensures single mode operation and protection against moisture and mechanical forces.  In order to execute these processes in an automated manner in manufacturing, Vanguard Automation has developed two systems, the vanguard SONATA and the vanguard REPRISE. The SONATA is a lithography unit responsible for structuring the PWBs and FAMLs, whereas the REPRISE manages all pre- and post- processing steps including dispensing, removal of an unexposed resin, cleansing, and encapsulation of the bonds.  Vanguard Automation also offers comprehensive process control and management software, including its software suite for design and fabrication of PWBs and FAMLs.

“We are extremely excited to bring Vanguard Automation’ technology in-house”, said Dr. Milan Mashanovitch, Chief Executive Officer of Freedom Photonics.  “PWB will be a fundamental packaging technology for next generation highly integrated photonic subassemblies offering not only compact form factors but also low optical loss.”

“We are pleased to be working with Freedom Photonics to enable photonic packaging and integration solutions”, said Thorsten Mayer, CEO of Vanguard Automation.  “Freedom Photonics’ engineering capabilities and manufacturing infrastructure make it an ideal partner for prototyping and lower-volume manufacturing.”

Statement about Freedom Photonics

Freedom Photonics is a Santa Barbara, California based manufacturer of unique and innovative photonic components, modules, and subsystems.  Our best-in-class diode laser, photodetector, and photonic integrated circuit (PIC) products are enabling revolutionary performance in LiDAR, sensing, and communication markets.  Our core competency is bringing photonics products from concept to volume production. freedomphotonics.com

Statement about Vanguard Automation

Vanguard Automation (VA), headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany, develops process technology and software-defined manufacturing equipment for photonic packaging and assembly. Building on advanced nano-printing technology, VA solutions complement planar photonic integrated circuits (PIC) with 3D freeform structures such as Photonic Wire Bonds and Micro-Optical Lenses. This technology is key to building chiplet-based photonic systems, offering high packaging density and increased design flexibility, while being amenable to automated high-volume fabrication. vanguard-automation.com