Marvell buys Polariton | Electronics Weekly

Marvell has bought Polariton Technologies, a developer of high-speed, low-power plasmonics-based silicon photonics devices.

The acquisition strengthens Marvell’s optical technology portfolio by adding advanced modulation capabilities that enable continued scaling in bandwidth, power efficiency and integration for next-generation coherent and optical interconnect platforms.

While the transition to 1.6T connectivity is underway, the industry is already advancing towards 3.2T and beyond. Achieving these next-generation performance levels requires innovation at the device level. Plasmonics offers significant advantages over traditional silicon photonics by enabling higher density, massively parallel optical links with ultra-low energy.

Polariton’s plasmonics-based modulation technology is designed to address these challenges in next-generation coherent and DCI optical interconnects, including ZR and ZR+ applications, enabling ultra-fast, energy-efficient optical signalling in a highly compact form factor. By integrating plasmonics with silicon photonics, the technology extends the performance of optical interconnects and supports the continued scaling of next-generation coherent and optical interconnect solutions.

“Marvell continues to invest in advanced optical technologies to support the rapid evolution of AI and cloud datacentre infrastructure,” said Sandeep Bharathi, president, Data Center Group, Marvell. “The addition of Polariton extends our optical roadmap with differentiated modulation technology and a highly specialised team. This investment reflects our commitment to innovation across multiple technology approaches as we continue to build on our leadership in high-speed connectivity.”

Polariton brings a team with deep expertise in plasmonics, silicon photonics and high-speed optical modulation. The addition of this engineering talent enhances Marvell’s capabilities in advanced photonics and supports ongoing development of next-generation optical platforms.

The acquisition strengthens Marvell’s end-to-end connectivity portfolio across electro-optics, photonics, switching and custom silicon. By combining Polariton’s plasmonics technology with Marvell’s existing silicon photonics and DSP capabilities, the company is well positioned to deliver highly integrated, scalable solutions for next-generation datacentre architectures, including coherent, scale-across and DCI optical interconnect platforms.