April 16,2025, Surprisingly, Eoptolink released an 800G optical transceiver supporting Multi-Core Fiber (MCF) at this year's OFC.Unlike existing solutions that require external single-core-to-multicore converters, Eoptolink’s innovative 800G transceiver connects directly to MCF. Thus, significantly eases MCF deployment in the datacenter.
From 400G to 800G optical transceivers, and from silicon photonics to LPO optical transceivers, Eoptolink has always been a leader in the industry. The MCF optical transceiver they launched this time once again leads the industry.
Another company that launched an MCF optical transceiver at this year's OFC is Hyper Photonix. They and their Japanese subsidiary SiPhx released an 800G optical transceiver that can be directly connected to Fujikura's MCF fiber, equipped with two dual-channel LC connectors. Just like Eoptolink, their MCF optical transceiver also does not require external conversion devices. Hyper Photonix claims that they have used their patented Hyper Silicon technology to directly integrate the FIFO (Fan in Fan out) component into the optical transceiver.
What does it mean that two major optical transceiver companies released MCF optical modules at the same time? Mr Hao Chen, the marketing manager of Corning, told the editor that they have noticed that the market for MCF fibers has already started. Compared with hollow-core fibers, the demand for multi-core fiber products in the AI industry is more realistic. After all, achieving multi-core connection in a single fiber can greatly increase the fiber deployment density, which is highly appreciated by customers. At Corning's booth this year, what impressed the editor the most was their cabling products based on 200-micron fibers. The optical connection industry can't wait for high-density fiber deployment any longer.
At last year's CFCF, CFOL, together with several companies such as Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable(YOFC), Accelink , HYT, and OptoWeave, established a domestic joint working group for the multi-core fiber connector industry. However, the difficulty at that time was the lack of support from optical transceiver companies. At this year's OFC, there were not only MCF optical transceivers, but also MCF connectors from HYC and A-one. The former OFS company, now renamed Lightera, jointly launched the MCF fusion splicing solution, the FITEL S185EVROF fusion splicer, with Furukawa Electric, which supports the fusion splicing of multi-core fibers and hollow-core fibers. Lightera also launched a new AllWave Flex 4-core fiber, specifically developed for the data center market. Dan Hendrickson, the PLM director of the company, stated in a press release that the AllWave Flex 4-core fiber has excellent attenuation and industry-leading low adjacent core crosstalk .
Today, at OptoWeave company in Shanghai, Dr. Ma, Lin and General Manager Bai introduced their full range of multi-core fiber connectors and production lines to the editor. They have developed several generations of coupling equipment for multi-core connectors, and the production efficiency per hour of the latest generation products has been greatly improved. Dr. Ma and his team have been researching multi-core fiber connectors and backplane connectors for many years, accumulating rich experience. Their latest femtosecond direct writing three-dimensional photonic interconnection chip has pushed the manufacturing of optical connectors to a new height, and they even received an interview on CCTV News Network for this.
The connector field is one of the most active fields in the current optical communication field. At the 2022 OFC, NEC announced that it had deployed 4-core multi-core fibers in its submarine cable system. And OFC 2025 will be remembered in history for the MCF multi-core optical transceivers.
