OpenLight plans to showcase a portfolio of heterogeneous III-V silicon photonic innovations at OFC 2026, focusing on high-speed optical interconnects for artificial intelligence, cloud, and hyperscale data center networks. The company will use booth #2449 at the Los Angeles Convention Center to demonstrate production-ready photonic integrated circuits with integrated lasers, electro-absorption modulators, and amplifiers. The presence is structured around live technology demonstrations, partner collaborations, and speaking roles in the technical program to signal that its photonic application-specific integrated circuits are ready for broader deployment and scaling.
A central highlight is a 400G-per-lane III-V-on-silicon electro-absorption modulator designed for 3.2T and beyond architectures. Building on work first shown at OFC 2025, the enhanced 400G-per-lane EA modulator features flip-chip co-packaging with a MACOM driver, delivering optical modulation amplitude (OMA) of 3 dBm and extinction ratio greater than 3.5 dB. The demonstration emphasizes improvements in integration maturity and manufacturability that enable differential drive and higher bandwidth performance on a production-ready heterogeneous III-V-on-silicon photonics platform. These advances are positioned to strengthen the scalability of OpenLight’s process design kit devices for next-generation 3.2T and beyond high-density, low-power optical transceivers targeting artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cloud data center deployments.
The company will also present a 1.6T DR8 evaluation board built around a beta 1.6T distributed-feedback based transceiver PIC that includes heterogeneous integrated lasers, modulators, amplifiers, and photodetectors operating with a Marvell Ara 3 nm 1.6T digital signal processor. The PIC integrates OpenLight’s 1310 nm distributed-feedback lasers and indium phosphide based 224G electro-absorption modulators and now delivers improved power efficiency, consuming approximately 2.0 W, down from 2.7 W reported at initial sample availability. The demonstration shows a complete high-speed optical link aimed at emerging artificial intelligence cluster and data center needs, with full flip-chip co-packaging of the DSP, transmitter PIC, and receiver and no external laser alignment.
In addition to its own hardware, OpenLight will feature several ecosystem partners in the booth. Oriole Networks will demonstrate a scalable, all passive backend network for artificial intelligence workloads based on silicon photonics nanosecond optical circuit switching with predictable low tail latency. GDS Factory will show an all-in-one, schematic-driven design flow for the OpenLight platform that combines advanced PH18DA device modeling with programmatic layout, verification, and post-layout simulation. Spark Photonics will highlight design and layout services using the OpenLight process design kit with the Luceda Photonics software suite. Beyond the show floor, OpenLight executives and engineers are scheduled to participate in multiple OFC sessions, including a Market Watch panel on the status and enabling technologies of 1.6 Tbps and beyond, a course on reliability and qualification of fiber-optic components, a session on high-speed optical modulators for intra-data center links unlocking 400 Gb/s and beyond per lane, and a session on advanced prototyping, packaging, and integration for next-generation fiber links.
