POET Technologies Inc. announced that Shaoxing ZKTel Equipment Co. (?ZKTel?), which supplies optical computer equipment such as modules and transceivers to Tier 1 companies in China?s datacom and mobile networking industries, is one of the lead customers for POET?s 100G optical engines. POET and ZKTel have been collaborating to develop a 100G CWDM4 optical transceiver module using POET optical engines supplied by POET?s joint venture company, Super Photonics Xiamen (SPX).

Each module contains a 100G CWDM4 transmit and a receive engine with monolithically integrated MUX and DMUX, directly modulated lasers (DMLs), and high-speed photodiodes. POET developed the product to suit ZKTel?s desired designs, demonstrating the flexibility of the optical interposer technology. ZKTel?s decision to move into single-mode optics sparked their interest in POET.

The Company was an attractive choice because of the low capital expenditure and elegant architecture required to adopt the optical interposer. POET creates a low barrier to entry into the single-mode optics marketplace for ZKTel. In the production phase, SPX assembles and tests the optical engines at its facility and ships optical engines to customers such as ZKTel.

Customers use optical engine production samples to complete their internal qualification and start sampling modules to their end customers. This cycle typically takes 6 to 9 months before high-volume production can be expected. However, since ZKTel is in advanced stages of its module development, ZKTel expects to ramp to volume production in the second half of 2024.