Omni Design Technologies has announced “critical advancements” in its in-development 200G-class co-packaged optics (CPO) analog front-end (AFE) IP portfolio, built on an advanced 3 nm process. The company says the AFE targets up to 224 Gb/s pulse-amplitude modulation 4-level (PAM4) optical I/O to improve bandwidth density and reduce power for artificial intelligence (AI) scale-up and scale-out connectivity in data centers.

The announcement covers a high-swing linear transmit (TX) driver and a low-noise receive (RX) transimpedance amplifier (TIA). Omni Design says its CPO AFE is intended to address industry-wide power and bandwidth constraints associated with moving data at 200G-class speeds, by supporting optical I/O placed closer to the switch and compute package for higher density and lower energy per bit.

Omni Design says the CPO AFE provides the electrical-to-silicon photonics interface required for high-speed optical links. “As AI training and inference fabrics grow, the industry is being forced to rethink power and bandwidth at every interface,” said Kush Gulati, President and CEO of Omni Design Technologies. “Co-Packaged Optics is a critical architectural shift, with the analog front-end playing a key role in achieving system-level performance and efficiency.”

In its feature list, Omni Design cites support for 224 Gb/s PAM4, built-in programmable transfer functions intended to improve link robustness, and a 3 nm process “for maximum integration density and low power consumption.” The company also positions the work as an expansion beyond ultra-high-speed data conversion, aimed at supporting both optical and electrical interconnects for AI-focused data centers.

Source: Omni Design Technologies