News: Optoelectronics
26 March 2025
Acacia expands client optics component portfolio
Acacia Communications Inc of Maynard, MA, USA (now part of Cisco) — which develops and manufactures high-speed coherent optical interconnect products — has expanded its client optics components portfolio with new products that leverage its proven digital signal processing (DSP) and silicon photonics expertise in coherent optics. Specifically, the firm is introducing a 3nm Kibo 1.6T PAM4 DSP and a family of 200G-per-lane optical engine products that can deliver a solution with the power efficiency required for the most demanding AI workloads.
Driven by demands for higher bandwidth, lower power and smaller footprint
Acacia’s client optics portfolio is driven by key customer requirements for better power efficiency, higher performance and smaller footprint from a proven high-volume supplier. Delivering these capabilities is a critical enabler for module vendors to design cutting-edge pluggable modules that can handle the compute-intensive workloads generated by AI, cloud services and video streaming, says the firm. With more than a million 100G-per-lane optical engines shipped in the last 12 months, Acacia is already an established supplier for client optics components based on silicon photonics.
New 3nm 1.6T Kibo PAM4 DSP
At the heart of Acacia’s 200G-per-lane client optics portfolio is the 3nm 1.6T Kibo PAM4 DSP, designed to power the optical interconnects inside cloud and AI data centers. It is expected to sample later in 2025.
Key features include:
- 3nm CMOS node for what is claimed to be market-leading power efficiency, enabling more than 20% lower power compared with existing 1.6T module implementations;
- industry-standard compliance enhanced by Acacia’s algorithms;
- transmit retimed optics (TRO) configurations with power-efficient support for diagnostic and loopback troubleshooting capabilities;
- support for gearbox and retimer applications;
- designed for 1.6T DR4/DR8/2xFR4 modules in OSFP/QSFP-DD form factors.
200G-per-lane optical engine family
Complementing the Kibo PAM4 DSP is a family of optical engine products designed to support 200G per lane that leverage Acacia’s silicon photonics expertise. The optical engine products are being demonstrated at the Optical Fiber Communications Conference & Exposition (OFC 2025) in San Francisco, CA, USA (1–3 April).
The family of optical engine products addresses a variety of applications with the following configurations:
- separate transmit and receive components;
- DR4, DR8 and 2xFR4 use cases;
- support for 100G/lane and 200G/lane;
- flexible driver configuration support;
- transimpedance amplifier (TIA) integration in receiver circuit (RX).
“We expect the market for IC chipsets for optical communications to grow from 2025 through 2030 at a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of 17% as hyperscalers look to meet the burgeoning demands that AI is placing on the entire infrastructure,” says Vladimir Kozlov, founder & CEO at market research firm LightCounting. “Having a new supplier in this space, that also has the credibility that Acacia has amassed over more than a decade, will be key for continuing innovation.”
Proven volume manufacturing capabilities
Acacia’s expanded client optics portfolio is backed by Cisco’s full commitment to support the ongoing development, supply and customer service of Acacia’s existing and future products.
“Client optics has always represented an exciting opportunity to leverage our team’s expertise in DSP and silicon photonics,” says senior VP & general manager Benny Mikkelsen. “With AI driving tremendous demand for client optics and increased adoption of silicon photonics at 200G/lane, this is an ideal time for us to invest in scaling this part of our business.”
