17 - 12 Mar 2026
Expo Theater I
This panel will explore the latest market trends, applications, and technological developments driving the adoption of 1.6 Tbps modules, with a primary focus on pluggable form factors. Industry leaders representing a component vendor, a module vendor, a system vendor, and a data center operator will share their perspectives on the opportunities, challenges, and innovations shaping this next generation of high-speed connectivity.
Moderator
-
Christian Ilmi
Vice President of Sales, Major Accounts, Ligent, United States
Panelists
-
Adam Carter
Chief Executive Officer, OpenLight Photonics, United States
As bandwidth requirements push toward 1.6T and 3.2T, advances in core photonic components—such as high-performance DFB lasers and 200G and 400G electro-absorption modulators—are becoming essential to enabling continued bandwidth scaling while reducing power consumption.
Beyond device performance, the ability to manufacture these technologies at scale will be a defining factor in their adoption. This presentation will examine how emerging photonic integration approaches, including heterogeneous integration, support the transition of high-speed optical technologies from innovation to volume deployment.
-
Frank Chang
Chief Technology Officer, Source Photonics, United States
The deployment of 1.6T technology is rapidly advancing with significant focus on AI infrastructures. 1.6T will start dominating the market from 2026 by leveraging the transition to 200G per lane. The opportunities and design challenges of choice for next 400G/lane based 3.2T optical transceivers will be discussed in great details towards its commercialization for very near future.
-
Alex Guichard
Vice President Product Line Management, Inpho, United States
Even with 1.6Tbps mass deployments just beginning, the industry faces critical decisions around technology platforms, modulation formats, integration strategies, and deployment timelines for the next generation. This presentation will assess key requirements, maturity of enabling technologies, and practical challenges of scaling performance while maintaining efficiency. We will highlight how next-generation integrated photonic solutions are positioning the ecosystem for sustainable growth beyond 1.6T.
-
Robert Keys
Vice President Optical Transmission, Ciena, Canada
As AI-scale networks drive unprecedented capacity for new scale-across and other DCI applications, coherent modem and photonic technologies must evolve beyond traditional transceiver boundaries. This session discusses what comes after what comes next.
-
Rajiv Pancholy
Director, Hyperscale Strategy & Products, Optical Systems Division, Broadcom, United States
The presentation will examine the industry’s transition from 1.6T to 3.2T modules and the major challenges driving this evolution. It will also showcase Broadcom’s laser portfolio for both 1.6T and 3.2T modules, as well as its high-density optical engines for CPO solutions. Finally, it will discuss the rationale for using optics in scale-up interconnects and the architectural approaches enabling their adoption.
-
Bo Zhang
Senior Principal Engineer, Marvell Technology, United States
The transition to 1.6Tbps coherent interfaces marks an inflection point in optical interconnect economics, driven by AI/ML explosion, continued power constraints, and pluggable architectures. This talk examines the market readiness for 1.6T, the key technology enablers—including 250+ Gbaud DSP, advanced FEC, and optical integration—and the path toward 3.2T/6.4T. We will discuss how end user requirements, standards alignment, and silicon scaling are reshaping the coherent ecosystem.