Hengtong Optic-Electric Invests $30M in Rockley Photonics to Extend Joint Venture

Rockley Photonics Inc. has received a $30 million investment from and expanded its strategic relationship with Shanghai Hengtong Optic-Electric Co. in a Suzhou-based joint venture with Hengtong addressing the burgeoning 400G DR4 transceiver market.

Rockley-Hengtong is expanding its 2017 joint venture, increasing its portfolio to develop, manufacture, and sell 400G DR4 transceivers utilizing Rockley’s LightDriver Optical Engines.

Emerging applications such as AI, machine learning, AR/VR, and 5G wireless are driving network traffic to unprecedented levels. As bandwidth requirements increase, data centers are looking to deploy higher switching capacity. The unique architecture of Rockley’s LightDriver facilitates the transition to in-package optics for 51T switches and drives a broad spectrum of connectivity products including 400G and 800G pluggables, which are required for the large-scale deployment of 12.8T and 25.6T switches. This will enable data centers to adopt fiber-to-the-server and eliminate the need for costly, high-power electrical signaling.

The LightDriver is the world’s first 400G engine supporting 1310 nm on a fully integrated, optimized waveguide platform. Its tight integration with electronics enabled by advanced 2.5D packaging is key to facilitating the high bandwidth and dense optical I/O required by increasing network traffic. The LightDriver technology in chipsets is important for data centers wishing to improve performance while reducing power and costs.