With the expansion of data centers and the rise of generative AI, LLMs, IoT and video streaming services, the demand for advanced interconnections is greater than ever.
Conventional connections using copper have critical bandwidth limitations caused by the ‘skin effect’, where the current flowing through the cable is concentrated on the surface of the conductor. Optical interconnects, while providing high capacity over longer distances, require significant capital expenditure to deploy short-range, high-volume links.
Point2s E-tube offers a low-cost, low-loss broadband dielectric waveguide solution that could serve as an advanced alternative to existing electrical and optical interconnects in high-speed, short-range communications links. It is 80% lighter and 50% less bulky than copper cables, and could reduce the power consumption and cost of optical cables by 50%, with picosecond latencies that are three orders of magnitude better.
New partners
The metal film laminated rectangular dielectric waveguide has been shown to achieve impressive levels of pass distance, bend radius and channel density without the need for a complex manufacturing process. It can be deployed for cable speeds of 800G/1.6T/3.2T and higher.
You may not have heard of it before, but that’s about to change as Point2 recently announced plans to partner with Bosch Venture (the venture capital arm of the Bosch Group) and Molex to commercialize its E-Tube technology, bringing electrical and optical replace connections. high-throughput connections, including (but not limited to) 100/400 Gbps board-to-board communications.
“The escalating demand for network capacity in future AI/ML data centers and automotive use cases requires a new approach to cable interconnection,” said Jairo Guerrero, VP and GM of the Copper Solutions division at Molex. “Point2 has developed an E-Tube platform that can scale to the connectivity requirements of data centers and future automotive network architectures. Partnering with Point2 to commercialize E-Tube is a perfect fit for Molex’s connectivity business and helps position our company to better respond to growing customer demand.”