Coherent has launched PhotonLink, an integrated optics platform aimed at optical connectivity in AI infrastructure, including co-packaged optics (CPO), near-packaged optics (NPO), and emerging chip-to-chip links. The PhotonLink platform pulls together photonics components and assembly and test capabilities to deliver finished optical assemblies and modules for next-generation AI data centers.
PhotonLink targets architectures that push optics closer to compute and switching silicon as systems scale and bandwidth and power constraints tighten. Coherent lists the building blocks it plans to integrate under the platform, including indium phosphide (InP) lasers, vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) arrays, silicon photonics, isolators, specialty fibers, micro-optics, and detectors. Coherent says it can combine these into external laser sources, precision fiber assemblies, and optical modules tailored to a customer’s architecture.
For data center architects, the practical implication is that CPO and NPO programs can quickly become integration-heavy: lasers, photonics, optics, fiber handling, and receiver components all have to land within tight loss and alignment budgets, then survive qualification and volume manufacturing. A platform approach that spans component supply, integration, and test can reduce the number of interfaces an operator or system vendor has to manage, but the proof will be in qualification outcomes and manufacturability at scale.
Coherent reports more than 10 CPO customer engagements and more than 10 NPO engagements, and says it has anchor customers and long-term agreements for both architectures. The company also reports more than five engagements in chip-to-chip connectivity. Coherent expects PhotonLink revenue to begin ramping in Q4 of calendar year 2026.
PhotonLink builds on Coherent’s existing data center manufacturing base, which the company says has shipped more than 300 million InP lasers and more than one billion InP and gallium arsenide (GaAs) photodetectors. Coherent also says it is expanding 6-inch InP and specialty fiber manufacturing capacity to support the PhotonLink ramp.
PhotonLink was introduced during ECOC 2026, where Coherent also posted a webcast of the launch event.
Source: Coherent
