Sanmina-SCI and Kaiam announce strategic partnership to build leading edge hybrid integrated optical components

SAN JOSE & NEWARK, USA: Sanmina-SCI Corp., a leading manufacturing solutions company making some of the world's most complex and valuable optical, electronic and mechanical products, and Kaiam Corp., a global manufacturer of high performance hybrid photonic integrated circuits (PICs), announced a partnership to produce a family of optical components using Kaiam's MEMS-based hybrid integration technology.

The first products are 40Gb/s transmitter TOSA and ROSA receiver optical subassemblies for use in QSFP-LR4 optical transceivers. These products integrate high performance, directly modulated lasers and high-speed detectors with planar lightwave circuits (PLC) and associated optics and electronics to achieve very high bandwidth in a small form factor. The product will be utilized in telecommunications systems, switches and routers in both enterprise and datacenter networks.

"The optical and microelectronic market is a strategic focus for Sanmina-SCI. We have made significant investments in process and manufacturing technologies along with the required capital equipment to produce these complex products," said Dave Dutkowsky, executive VP of Sanmina-SCI's Communications Networks Division.

"Kaiam is an industry leader with a reputation for creating cutting-edge technologies, and we are excited to have been selected by them to industrialize and manufacture their new products. This partnership highlights our end-to-end capabilities in this market and our emphasis on developing breakthrough optical technologies with our customers."

"We are very impressed with Sanmina-SCI's depth of domain expertise in optical technologies. They have years of experience taking products from new product introduction to volume production, and a reputation for high quality. Working closely with Sanmina-SCI and leveraging their global resources and footprint allows us to cost-effectively and rapidly ramp our products," said Ross Parke, Kaiam's VP of Manufacturing.

Sanmina-SCI has design, manufacturing and logistics facilities strategically located in key regions throughout the world, including the Shenzhen Optical facility. The new products are being industrialized with support from Sanmina-SCI's engineering teams and will be ramped to full production in Sanmina-SCI's facilities in Shenzhen, China.

"The Kaiam MEMS-based hybrid integration technology is applicable to a broad range of fiber optic products that we expect will be the basis for continued growth in our partnership with Kaiam," added Dutkowsky. "The rapid transition from Kaiam's development labs to volume manufacturing is a testament to the close working relationship between Kaiam's development team and Sanmina-SCI's industrialization team, coupled with a robust new product introduction process, global optical infrastructure and diverse manufacturing resources."

Sanmina-SCI makes some of the most complex and valuable optical, electronic and mechanical products in the world, manufacturing mission-critical products. The company's global footprint and complete end-to-end supply chain solutions allow Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to compete effectively in today's marketplace.