Co-Packaged Optics & Optical I/O
Integrating photonics and silicon at the package level to break the bandwidth-power wall.
As switch ASICs scale to higher bandwidths, electrical SerDes links between chip and pluggable optics become the main power and bandwidth bottleneck. Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) embeds the optical engine inside the switch package, removing PCB trace loss and enabling future data centre scaling.
The Challenge We Solve
Pluggable optics have served the industry well, yet high-speed electrical signalling over PCB traces hits fundamental physical limits. Electrical-domain insertion loss, crosstalk and power draw take a large portion of the system power budget. SparkGrid's CPO solution is built from the ground up for 2.5D and 3D integration with switch ASICs, delivering higher bandwidth density and substantially lower optical I/O power.
Advanced Packaging Complexity
2.5D/3D heterogeneous integration requires sophisticated substrate design, precise die placement and reliable bonding processes. Small packaging defects can degrade high-speed optical and electrical performance.
Heterogeneous Co-Simulation & Signal Integrity
Co-design across electrical, photonic and thermal domains is highly complex. Maintaining signal integrity for ultra-high-speed interfaces requires full-stack multi-physics simulation.
Ecosystem & Standardization Gaps
CPO relies on tight collaboration between ASIC, DSP, optical engine and system vendors. Wider adoption depends on mature, interoperable standards such as OIF CPO and UCIe.
Optical-Electrical Co-Design
Tight integration of DSP, optical engine and switch ASIC demands full-link optoelectronic co-optimization. Signal distortion, impedance matching and optical power budgets must be jointly tuned across photonic and electrical domains.
Key Specifications
What SparkGrid Delivers
Ultra-Short Reach Design Service
Optimised process for electrical interconnect from switch ASIC to optical engine. It features minimal equalisation overhead and ultra-low power consumption per 800G/1.6T optical engine.
Integration IP
Hard macro IP blocks are fully qualified for advanced processes, with complete timing and power characterization models.
OE & EE Co-Designed Solution
Joint EE/OE optimization enables full-link power and signal tuning. It delivers tight co-design of DSP, silicon photonics and switch ASIC for advanced CPO architectures.
Flexible Compliance
Compliant with key CPO industry specifications for standardized electrical and optical interfaces, enabling multi-vendor CPO interoperability across multiple protocols.
Packaging Co-Design
Provides complete design and packaging guidelines for turnkey CPO solutions, enabling robust heterogeneous co-design between ASIC and optical engine.
Bring-Up & Test IP
Built-in BIST, loopback and eye-diagram capture logic accelerate CPO module bring-up and production testing, shortening product time-to-market significantly.
Who Benefits
Ready to Get Started?
Talk to our engineering team about integrating SparkGrid solutions into your next-generation network.