Kaiam Corp of Newark, CA, UA (which makes optical transceivers for hyperscale data centers) has announced general availability of the XQX5000-series of QSFP28 100G-CWDM4 transceivers based on its LightScale2 platform. The product is qualified at multiple premier customers and volume production out of Kaiam’s large-scale manufacturing plant in Livingston, Scotland, UK is meeting high demand.
The LightScale2 architecture is said to reduce the cost of parts and manufacturing while improving electrical and thermal performance by eliminating hermetic ‘gold boxes’ and flex circuits. “The LightScale2 production ramp has gone very smoothly,” says Russell Childs, general manager of Kaiam Europe Ltd. Kaiam’s UK factory has manufactured traditional hermetic TOSAs (transmitter optical sub-assemblies) and ROSAs (receiver optical sub-assemblies) in high volumes for years. “The LightScale2 platform is far simpler to manufacture in terms of assembly steps, capital equipment, and labor. This has allowed us to ramp to high volumes with high yields much more quickly than was possible with more complex legacy products,” he adds.
“Our micromechanical alignment technology allows multi-mode packaging techniques to be used in a single-mode application,” says Kaiam’s CEO Bardia Pezeshki. “The Lightscale2 platform is optimized to deliver maximum value and performance in the data-center environment at dramatically lower costs than traditionally aligned hybrid approaches.”
Kaiam raised substantial expansion capital to support the build-out of LightScale2 manufacturing capacity by selling its fabrication plant in Newton Aycliffe, UK to II-VI Inc. Kaiam aims to continue the development of indium phosphide (InP) photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for future transceiver products through foundry services and partnerships.
