OpenLight to Demonstrate Silicon Photonics for AI Data Centers at OFC 2026
OpenLight will showcase heterogeneous III-V silicon photonic circuits at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition (OFC 2026) in Los Angeles, March 15-19. The demonstrations target engineers building optical interconnects for AI clusters and hyperscale data centers.
The company will display two primary technologies at booth #2449: a 400G-per-lane electro-absorption modulator and a fully integrated 1.6T transceiver.
400G Modulator for 3.2T Transceivers
OpenLight's enhanced EA modulator delivers 3 dBm optical modulation amplitude and extinction ratio greater than 3.5 dB. The device uses flip-chip co-packaging with a MACOM driver and improves on demonstrations from last year's OFC.
The modulator is designed for 3.2T and higher-density transceivers. OpenLight says the design enables differential drive and improved bandwidth while maintaining manufacturability on its heterogeneous III-V silicon platform.
1.6T Transceiver with Integrated Lasers and Amplifiers
The evaluation board pairs OpenLight's photonic integrated circuit with a Marvell Ara 3 nm digital signal processor. The PIC integrates 1310 nm distributed feedback lasers, 224G electro-absorption modulators, amplifiers, and photodetectors.
Power consumption dropped to approximately 2.0 W from 2.7 W in earlier samples. The transceiver uses flip-chip co-packaging with no external laser alignment required, representing a complete optical link for data center deployments.
Partner Demonstrations
OpenLight will feature collaborations with ecosystem partners:
- Oriole Networks will demonstrate optical circuit switching for AI workloads with nanosecond switching and low tail latency.
- GDS Factory will show design automation tools for the OpenLight platform, combining device modeling with programmatic layout and simulation.
- Spark Photonics will present design and layout services using OpenLight's process design kit with Luceda Photonics software.
The company said its technology is ready for production scaling, based on demonstrations of integration maturity and manufacturability improvements.
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