News: Optoelectronics
11 March 2026
POET demos hybrid laser and next-gen high-power external light source for AI at OFC
In booth 339 at the Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC 2026) at the Los Angeles Convention Center (16–19 March), POET Technologies Inc of Toronto, Ontario, Canada –– which designs and implementats highly integrated optical engines and light sources for artificial intelligence networks –– is giving live demonstrations of its two leading external light source (ELS) products:
POET Blazar: Blazar is a highly integrated hybrid laser that exemplifies POET’s ‘semiconductorization of photonics’ mission. Designed to power both co-packaged optics (CPO) and high-bandwidth, chip-to-chip, light-based data communications links, Blazar has rapidly advanced since it was first showcased in private meetings at OFC 2025. POET says that its high-power, multi-channel light source is proving to be a viable alternative to traditional distributed feedback (DFB) laser-based solutions. Wafer-level chip-scale technology significantly lowers the cost of the light source, provides larger scale and better reliability, and increases the effective supply of indium phosphide.
POET is demonstrating the high output power and multi-wavelength capabilities of Blazar. “Blazar makes AI connectivity much more affordable thanks to an architecture that reduces costs and increases scale and manufacturing efficiency,” says executive chairman & CEO Dr Suresh Venkatesan.
POET Starlight: The next generation of POET’s first ELS solution is being unveiled alongside Blazar. The POET Starlight demo features a compact engine solution with eight-channel high-power lasers at multiple wavelengths. Starlight is being integrated into a working optical engine to show the commercial applicability of the solution to the industry-standard ELSFP module.
“Starlight is gaining traction in the industry because of the large demand for more compute power for AI applications,” says chief revenue officer Raju Kankipati. “We are excited to reveal the advancements we have made to our latest version of Starlight that achieves advanced packaging and lower cost needed for chip-to-chip data communication links.”
Lightwave Award: In addition, POET representatives are attending the Lightwave Innovations Reviews ceremony on 16 March to accept the recently announced Elite Score award in recognition of POET Teralight, the multiple award-winning line of 1.6Tbps transmit and receive optical engines. In February, Lightwave Innovation Reviews announced that its judges had given POET Teralight a score of 4.5, one of the highest received among winning entries.
POET and Semtech launch 1.6T optical receivers for AI networks
