SAN FRANCISCO, March 31, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — fJscaler Inc., a leading mixed signal analog semiconductor and solutions company, today announced the successful silicon demonstration of one of the industry’s first 260 GBd (gigabaud) linear drivers designed to enable low power 1.6 Terabit (T) coherent optics for metro and long-haul networks, as well as 1.6T and 3.2T IMDD for intra-datacenter interconnects. This groundbreaking achievement, unveiled at the 2025 Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition (OFC), sets a new benchmark for data rates and spectral efficiency in optical communication, addressing surging demands driven by AI, and hyperscale data centers. The demand for high bandwidth, low latency and low power consumption is central to AI infrastructure’s scalability needs, which are growing exponentially from training to reasoning as well as agent models.
Unprecedented Performance for Future Networks
The 260 GBd linear driver represents a monumental leap forward in coherent optics, doubling the baud rate of today’s state-of-the-art 130 GBd systems. By operating at 260 GBd, fJscaler’s driver enables single-wavelength 1.6T transmission with a DP-16QAM modulation format, significantly reducing cost, power, and complexity compared to multi-carrier alternatives. This innovation empowers network operators and hyperscalers to deploy infrastructure efficiently while meeting exponential bandwidth growth.
AI infrastructure compute scale-out and scale-up needs continue to demand more bandwidth and more density at a pace never experienced in the traditional optical communications market.
Just as deployments at 200G/lane are coming online in 2025, there is already need, demand and benefits to migrate to 400G/lane IMDD PMDs. fJscaler’s 400G/lane linear driver demonstration establishes a leadership position and builds upon this technology base to create commercial products that will debut in 2026.
Key Advantages:
- Industry-first 260 GBd operation: Doubles symbol rates to maximize fiber capacity.
- 1.6T coherent transmission: Supports single-wavelength 1.6T using advanced modulation formats (e.g., DP-16QAM).
- Energy efficiency: Proprietary design reduces power consumption down to 1pJ/bit
- Future-ready scalability: Provides a clear pathway to 3.2T as DSPs evolve for coherent optics, and linear optics replace DSP retimed optics in high-density short-reach AI compute interconnects.
“This milestone underscores our commitment to pushing the boundaries of optical technology,” said Jan Filip, fJscaler CEO and President. “As AI and cloud applications demand faster, smarter networks, our 260 GBd linear driver silicon demonstrator delivers the performance and efficiency needed to transform tomorrow’s infrastructure.”
Marco Vitali, fJscaler Chief Technology Officer added, “Achieving 260 GBd required breakthroughs in semiconductor process technology and design architectures to achieve the linearity, bandwidth, and power needed for next generation optical interconnects. Our team’s novel BiCMOS design techniques are setting a new standard for the industry.”
“The demand on compute and in-turn interconnect scalability is paramount and continues to grow an order of magnitude toward AI reasoning and physical AI,” said Samir Desai, fJscaler SVP Corporate Development. “fJscaler is pleased to demonstrate its technology platform to service the next generation of optical interconnects, be it coherent optics for inter-datacenter, intra-datacenter for traditional network switch-to-switch optics, and more importantly for AI compute scale-out and scale-up networks.”
“We are excited to see such a critical innovation in coherent optics,” said Takashi Saida, Vice President, Head of NTT Device Innovation Center. “This technology will play a key role in meeting the ever-growing bandwidth demands of the future.”
Live Demonstration at OFC 2025:
fJscaler will showcase the 260 GBd linear driver in a live demo highlighting an IMDD 448Gbps optical transmit subsystem compatible to OSFP or QSFP-DD pluggable modules this week at OFC 2025 in San Francisco located at NTT Devices booth 1419. The demo is hosted by NTT Innovative Devices at its Private Conference Room by appointments only.
Availability:
Sampling to strategic partners begins in CYQ32025.
About fJscaler Inc.
fJscaler is a resurgence of a long legacy of proven innovation and high-quality semiconductor products serving the optical communications market for more than two decades. fJscaler’s mission is to scale femto-Joule optical communication with digitally assisted analog signal processing preserving low latency of fiber optics interconnects. To learn more about fJscaler, please visit www.fjscaler.com.
Media Contact:
Samir Desai
fJscaler SVP Corporate Development
+1 (949) 637-8829
[email protected]
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2b155a98-3ebc-4d00-a3f3-ab269ebba26b.