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Lucidean to Demonstrate Industry-First Mixed-Domain Coherent Optical Link at OFC 2025

San Francisco, CA – April 1, 2025 – Lucidean, Inc., a company specializing in optical communications, will showcase their innovative Mixed-Domain Coherent (MDC) optical link technology at OFC 2025. This breakthrough technology combines the advantages of Intensity-Modulation Direct Detection (IMDD) with the performance benefits of coherent technology in a single, highly scalable solution. The MDC link provides the link budget of traditional coherent links, enabling extended reaches and optical switch networks without the added cost and power consumption. Utilizing a combination (“mix”) of analog coherent detection and IMDD DSP, the MDC link maintains the power, cost, and latency benefits of IMDD with uncooled lasers and standard PAM4 electronics. The MDC link has been validated using the industry-leading Marvell® Spica Gen2 800G optical PAM4 DSP, achieving 200G/wavelength transmission, and demonstrating compatibility with PAM4 DSPs. 

Coherent links offer higher data rates per wavelength and extended reach. However, conventional coherent links require high power for temperature-controlled, complex tunable lasers and custom DSP ASICs, limiting their deployment in shorter-reach applications. Lucidean’s MDC technology eliminates these requirements with a novel link architecture and analog optical domain controls, enabling a high-performance coherent link with lower power consumption, latency, and cost. This innovation accelerates the adoption of coherent links in data centers, AI clusters, and high-performance computing. Chips for Lucidean’s 400G/wavelength prototype products are being evaluated, paving the way for broader industry adoption and scalability to 3.2 Tbps/port and beyond, meeting growing AI workload demands.

Hector Andrade, CEO of Lucidean, stated, “We are thrilled to showcase our Mixed-Domain Coherent technology at OFC 2025 and demonstrate its potential to transform data center infrastructure. Our collaboration with Marvell has been instrumental in validating this innovative approach, and we look forward to bringing our technology to market.” 

Yan Chen, Senior Director Product Marketing at Marvell, added, “Lucidean’s technology uniquely enables the high data rate and link budget of coherent while maintaining the low power, cost, and latency of IMDD. It is a compelling solution for 400G/wavelength links, and we are excited to continue our ongoing collaboration.” 

Private demonstrations will be available by request at OFC 2025 (Booth #6476). To inquire about availability or schedule a meeting, email contact@lucidean-inc.com. 

About Lucidean, Inc.  

Lucidean is pioneering mixed-domain communications technologies for coherent optical links, enabling next-generation data center infrastructure. With a focus on high-performance, efficient optical networking solutions, Lucidean addresses the increasing demands driven by AI workloads.