Molex buys Luxtera’s active optical cable line/VI Systems, consortium develop 40-Gbps VCSEL components

JANUARY 11, 2011 By Stephen Hardy -- Molex Inc. (NASDAQ:MOLX and MOLXA) says it has acquired Luxtera’s active optical cable business. The two companies also have reached an agreement for Luxtera to continue to supply the Silicon CMOS Photonics chip sets that form the foundation of the active optical cables, including collaboration on chip sets to support expansion of the active optical cable portfolio. Molex did not disclose the price it paid for the Luxtera product line, which was marketed under the Blazar name (see “Luxtera introduces low-power 40G AOC.”) The assets Molex has acquired include QSFP+ (Quad Small Form Factor Pluggable) 40-Gbps Ethernet and InfiniBand active optical cables. These will be added to Molex’s existing active optical cable portfolio. Molex anticipates the chip collaboration will see the development of 14-Gbps and four-channel 25-Gbps products for the 100 Gigabit Ethernet and InfiniBand markets. Molex described the collaboration agreement with Luxtera as “exclusive,” although Luxtera had previously signed a collaboration agreement with Amphenol and was supplying active optical cable technology to Siemon (see “Amphenol, Luxtera pair for active optical cables” and “Siemon intros QSFP+ 40G active optical cable”). Whether these two agreements will remain in place is not yet known. “The acquisition of Luxtera’s AOC business immediately adds QSFP+ 40-Gbps products to our existing portfolio and further contributes to our tradition of innovation for our customers, allowing them to deliver high performance products,” said Doug Busch, vice president and general manager of Molex’s Global Fiber Optic Products Group. “We are very excited to be partnering with Luxtera on future AOC development because the combination of our interconnect expertise with Luxtera’s long reach, low power, and low bit error rate optical solutions will enable us to offer the highest level of photonics integration and performance available.” Luxtera CEO Greg Young said the deal would enable Luxtera to “continue to accelerate its growth by focusing on our core Silicon Photonics technology platform, while at the same time expanding the reach of our technology to global markets and customers.” JANUARY 14, 2010 -- Germany optical components developer VI Systems GmbH says it has successfully completed a project to develop serial 40-Gbps fiber-coupled small form-factor TO-can receiver and transmitter modules, including several related electro-optic components. VI Systems was part of a consortium funded by IBB, a major Berlin bank. The research consortium also included a European GaAs epi-wafer foundry, a foundry for silicon-germanium-based BiCMOS integrated circuits, a high-volume manufacturing partner with expertise in flip-chip and wire bonding process steps, and the German technical universities of Berlin (TUB) and Dresden (TUD). The consortium developed and prototyped ICs for current or electro-optically modulated lasers and limiting transimpedance amplifier ICs for the photodiodes. A high-frequency (40 GHz) transmitter and receiver packaging based on the proprietary integrated-packaging approach of VI Systems for flip-chip and wirebond sub-assemblies was completed as well. The devices demonstrated error-free data bit transmission over multimode fiber at 40 Gbps, according to VI Systems. The power consumption of the receiver and transmitter modules is below 150 mW allowing integration into standard commercial SFP (small form-factor pluggable) transceivers. Additionally the small size (less than 6 mm x 6 mm) and the power consumption levels of the new prototype modules will enable their integration into QSFP (quad small form-factor pluggable) transceivers with SerDes ICs, all at an expected power consumption of 3 W per module, the company adds. The production of both singlemode and multimode fiber versions of the QSFP transceiver is possible. The project and follow-on involvement of an industrial partner will enable scalable mass production at a low cost, VI Systems asserts. Active optical cable (AOC) applications and IEEE 802.3bg standard extensions towards low cost low power applications can be targeted for follow-on product exploitation, the company concludes. Product sample are available now.