News: Portfolio 2008

A Super-Cool Chip

Lightwire introduces the new information transmission technology at conference.

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"The state of technology in silicon is at a level nothing else has ever achieved and it is because there's been so much investment,'' said Tom Koch, director of the Center for Optical Technologies at Lehigh University. "The question is, can you harness that to do photonics? Lightwire has found so far the best way to do that."

The quest to extend "the reach of electronics," in the form of silicon chips, springs from the high cost and the power-hungry nature of traditional optical chips, according to Shastri and others. The emerging field, called silicon photonics, was one of the hot topics at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference on Monday in San Diego where Lightwire announced its product.

 

 

The lofty aim of the product and the experienced team behind it demonstrate the depth of semiconductor and fiber-optics expertise in the Valley. Shastri, for example, sold his previous tech start-up AANetcom in Lower Macungie Township in 2000 for nearly $1 billion worth of stock.

Shastri's track record and the broad knowledge of Lightwire's staff helped to recruit outside investors, including Mike Bolton, of Novitas Capital in Wayne, Delaware County.

"I have known Kal for 10 years, and when you're doing early stage investment, it is all about the people because you have to rely on the people to develop the technology," Bolton said. "In this case, this is a world-class technology team. There are very few people in the world who are as good as they are."

Lightwire, which will use a contract company to manufacture its products, will begin providing samples of the chip to potential customers shortly. The contract manufacturer, Chartered Semiconductor of Singapore, could produce and ship mass quantities of the product by later this year.

 

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