Users embrace OpenLight's silicon photonics platform

OpenLight, the open silicon photonics platform provider, can point to a successful 2024 signing up new customers. 

In 2023, OpenLight had three customers bringing photonic integrated circuit (PIC) designs to market. OpenLight has since added 14 more.  

OpenLight was formed in 2022 when Juniper Networks carved out its silicon photonics arm. Synopsys acquired a three-quarters stake in OpenLight, while Juniper retained a quarter.

“In the past, the company hadn’t really done any revenue, including when they were in Juniper,” says Adam Carter, OpenLight’s CEO (pictured). “We’ve seen a ten times increase and shown that we can be very profitable.”

The start-up has been creating industry partnerships to better serve its customers' circuit design, chip manufacturing, and packaging needs.

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An insider's view on the merits of optical integration

One of the pleasures of attending the OFC show, held in Los Angeles last month, is the many conversations possible in one location. The downside is that too many are cut short due to the show's hectic schedule. One exception was a conversation with Valery Tolstikhin (pictured), held in a quiet room prior to the exhibition hall's opening.

Tolstikhin is president and CEO of Intengent, the Ottawa-based consultancy and custom design service provider, and an industry veteran of photonic integration. In 2005 he founded OneChip Photonics, a fabless maker of indium phosphide photonic integrated circuits for optical access. 

One important lesson he learned at OneChip was how the cost benefit of a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) can be eroded with a cheap optical sub-assembly made from discrete off-the-shelf components. When OneChip started, the selling price for GPON optics was around $100 a unit but this quickly came down to $6. "We needed sales in volumes and they never came close to meeting $6," says Tolstikhin.

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