News: Optoelectronics
6 October 2025
POET and Semtech launch 1.6T optical receivers for AI networks
POET Technologies Inc of Toronto, Ontario, Canada — designer and developer of the POET Optical Interposer, photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and light sources for the hyperscale data-center, telecom and artificial intelligence (AI) markets — has announced with high-performance semiconductor, Internet of Things (IoT) systems and cloud connectivity service provider Semtech Corp of Camarillo, CA, USA the immediate availability for customer sampling of high-performance 1.6T receiver optical engines for AI and cloud networks.
The optical engine products leverage POET's Optical Interposer platform to integrate Semtech’s FiberEdge 200G-per-lane receiver technologies, creating highly integrated, chip-scale receive (Rx) engines that simplify module assembly while improving performance and manufacturability. The optical engines include DR8 for short-reach AI cluster links and 2×FR4 for longer-reach intra-datacenter connectivity and are available immediately for customer sampling.
“By integrating Semtech’s leading 200G-per-lane receiver technology with POET’s chip-scale optical interposer, we’ve achieved exceptional receiver performance that addresses the most demanding requirements for AI and cloud networks,” claims POET’s chief revenue officer Raju Kankipati. “We expect customers will quickly understand the market impact these products can make on their transceiver offerings and the resulting benefit to their customers. This collaboration also further deepens POET’s presence in the global high-speed optical transceiver ecosystem,” he adds.
“Delivering 200G-per-lane performance with the power headroom system designers need is fundamentally a signal-integrity challenge,” says Amit Thakar, VP of Signal Integrity product marketing at Semtech. “By co-optimizing our FiberEdge receive path with the POET Optical Interposer at the architecture and assembly levels, we’re achieving exceptional sensitivity and power in 1.6T DR8 and 2×FR4 receiver engines now sampling to customers.”
Integrated platform delivers advanced performance
The collaboration demonstrates how POET’s Optical Interposer platform enables seamless integration of high-performance electronic and photonic components with Semtech’s tested FiberEdge technology, delivering:
- N×200G/lane: receive path using Semtech FiberEdge transimpedance amplifiers (TIAs), integrated on POET’s Optical Interposer for compact, chip-scale assembly.
- Module targets: 1.6T DR8 and 2×FR4 receiver engines for AI cluster and intra-DC links. The 2xFR4 Receiver Optical Engines comes with integrated demultiplexers.
- Integration advantages: lower power, higher sensitivity, reduced BOM and assembly steps, and improved electrical/optical signal integrity at 200G/lane.
Evaluation units of the 1.6T DR8 and 1.6T 2×FR4 Receiver Optical Engines are available now for qualified customers.
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