GigOptix ships one millionth IC for parallel optical interconnects

PALO ALTO, USA: GigOptix Inc. announced that it has reached a significant milestone having shipped its 1 millionth production chip for multichannel optical interconnects.

The GigOptix HX product line, rooted at the GigOptix-Helix AG operations in Zurich, Switzerland, has been a pioneer in parallel high speed technology since the 1990’s and has provided devices which supported the evolution of standards and Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) form factors like SNAP12 and QSFP.

The 1 million Physical Media Dependent (PMD) ICs shipped in the last few years address datacom applications and, with ever increasing volumes, industrial and consumer applications like DVI/HDMI Active Optical Cables (AOC).

Joerg Wieland, Vice-President and GM of GigOptix-Helix, said: "This is very gratifying as I have been personally involved in the development and spreading of a new technology since I founded Helix Semiconductors in 1990, enabling a market that has by now supported the shipment of more than 1 million devices. We expect the market to grow at an accelerated rate as optical interconnects are being used in many more applications, including desktop and even mobile devices.

"Since we are able to continuously reduce the size, cost and power consumption with the latest design techniques and process technologies, we keep creating new high growth opportunities. We are overwhelmed by the interest and adoption of key datacom and consumer electronics global customers."

GigOptix's VCSEL driver and TIA arrays offer best value in the market for the implementation of optical interconnects for both datacom and consumer applications. 1x, 4x and 12x TX/RX solutions are available with transmission rates up to 150 Gb/s aggregate and power dissipation lower than 10mW for a 10Gb/s channel. Robustness and ease of use provide exceptional yield in high volume cost sensitive applications.

The market for these PMD ICs is predicted to see considerable growth in the coming years as multichannel optical interconnects increase penetration in datacenters as they provide speed, reach, reduced power consumption and ease of installation beyond what can be achieved with copper cables.

According to market forecast data from LightCounting LLC, by 2013 the datacom Active Optical Cable segment alone will grow to $192 million, achieving 38.5 percent CAGR. This trend is also expected to extend further to consumer electronics interconnects, including optical versions of HDMI, DisplayPort, USB and Intel's LightPeak, which are likely to achieve notable volumes by 2012.