SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – 03/10/2025 – (SeaPRwire) – The race to meet the insatiable bandwidth needs of modern AI data centers, cloud platforms, and quantum computing infrastructure has driven the photonics industry to the edge of its physical and economic limits. Traditional silicon photonics modulators, while successful in driving the first wave of high-speed optical interconnects, have long faced tradeoffs between energy efficiency, bandwidth, and scalability. This dynamic has sparked an industry-wide search for a breakthrough that can extend Moore’s Law–style scaling to photonics. In this context, NLM Photonics’ announcement of record-breaking validation results for its hybrid organic electro-optic (OEO) technology represents not just a step forward, but a genuine inflection point for the field. Independent, third-party tests have now confirmed that NLM’s silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are capable of delivering unprecedented levels of performance—1.6 terabits per second (1.6T) and 3.2 terabits per second (3.2T)—while maintaining compact footprints and energy-efficient operation.
According to the validation studies, NLM’s 1.6T SOH PIC demonstrated a breakthrough 224 Gbit/s per channel transmission rate across eight channels, with only 10 percent inter-channel variation. This was not simply a laboratory curiosity but rather a demonstration on a commercially available silicon photonics platform fabricated by Advanced Micro Foundry (AMF) with design input from Centera Photonics and Enosemi. The total system occupied just 17 mm² for the full eight-channel array, marking a striking 40 percent reduction in footprint compared with conventional silicon photonics systems. These results underscore the practical viability of NLM’s solution in real-world deployments, particularly in data center environments where physical density and energy consumption are critical constraints.
Independent testing conducted by VLC Photonics measured the system’s bandwidth, revealing 3 dB bandwidths exceeding 80 GHz for 200G components and up to 110 GHz for 400G-ready components. This is a decisive leap ahead of the traditional performance envelope for silicon photonics. Additionally, experiments carried out at NLM’s own laboratory, in collaboration with Keysight Technologies, validated PAM4 224 Gbps data transmission with exceptionally low drive voltages. The implication is significant: lower operating voltages directly translate into reduced power requirements for drivers and amplifiers, enabling energy savings at the system level. For hyperscale AI data centers consuming massive amounts of electricity, such improvements can amount to millions of dollars in operational savings and significant reductions in carbon emissions.
At the heart of NLM’s advance is its organic electro-optic (OEO) material, which integrates seamlessly into silicon photonic slot waveguides. This combination leverages the maturity of silicon platforms while adding the unique performance benefits of organic polymers. The company reported a world record modulation efficiency of 0.31 V-mm on its best-performing channel—roughly 10 to 15 times better than conventional silicon photonic modulators. Such efficiency gains fundamentally shift the balance of what is achievable with existing silicon foundry processes, creating a new performance class that combines scalability with sustainability.
Industry experts underscored the significance of these results. Brad Booth, CEO of NLM Photonics, emphasized the urgency of the market’s demand: “The accelerating growth of AI workloads is creating unprecedented challenges for optical interconnect technologies. Traditional photonic platforms cannot scale efficiently to meet next-generation requirements. Our 1.6T and 3.2T SOH PICs illustrate how hybrid organic electro-optic technology can extend silicon photonics beyond the 200G barrier and set a clear roadmap to 400G and beyond, all while cutting physical size and power consumption.” Booth highlighted that achieving both high bandwidth and reduced footprint positions the technology as an enabling factor for next-generation cloud and AI architectures.
Tom Baehr-Jones, CEO of photonics software firm Tesselmax, co-founder of Luxtera and Elenion, and an Optica Fellow, described the results as the culmination of decades of research. “We have been pushing toward this milestone for over twenty years. To see real-world 200G scalability on a commercially viable silicon platform—paired with order-of-magnitude improvements in modulation efficiency—marks a new era for silicon-organic hybrid technology,” he said. Baehr-Jones also pointed out that modulation remains the single most important bottleneck for scaling photonics systems, making NLM’s achievement particularly timely.
Michael Hochberg, another co-inventor of the silicon-organic hybrid concept and co-founder of Luxtera and Elenion, reflected on the long road to integration: “Polymers have always offered incredible promise for photonics, but getting them to work reliably on silicon platforms has been a significant challenge. These results prove that the vision we set out with is now becoming industrial reality.”
NLM has published a detailed research paper documenting the validation process, and the findings will be presented at multiple upcoming industry forums in October, including the Optica and APC Photonic-Enabled Cloud Computing (PECC) Summit and the Keysight TeraScale AI Seminar. In addition, a video of the testing is publicly available on NLM’s YouTube channel, giving the broader community a glimpse into the practicalities of this breakthrough.
Beyond the technical validation, the broader implication of this development is that the industry now has a credible path forward at a moment of acute need. AI and quantum applications are driving network operators to seek not just faster but also greener solutions. By lowering the power consumption and reducing the footprint of high-speed PICs, NLM’s hybrid technology directly addresses these dual imperatives of performance and sustainability. If adopted at scale, the benefits could reverberate far beyond the photonics sector, shaping the economics of the entire data economy.
For stakeholders eager to engage with this emerging technology, NLM Photonics has announced its availability for discussions at ECOC, one of the industry’s premier exhibitions. Interested parties are encouraged to reach out via press-relations@nlmphotonics.com.
About NLM Photonics
NLM Photonics develops cutting-edge organic electro-optic (OEO) modulation technology that transforms data center, AI, communications, and quantum computing performance. Its patented OEO platform enables higher bandwidth and lower power consumption while requiring minimal process disruption, delivering efficiency and sustainability benefits at scale. Built on more than two decades of R&D, NLM’s breakthroughs are setting the pace for the next generation of high-performance communications infrastructure.