Luxtera wins Darpa contract for faster data transfers in military: Carlsbad chip maker says new technology could replace copper

San Diego Business Journal, Dec 11, 2006 by Amy Yarnall

Carlsbad-based startup Luxtera Inc. has won a $5 million military contract for advancing a new technology that will allow U.S. agencies and commercial industries to use photon receivers that send data faster and cheaper.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's contract was valued at $16 million, according to Alex Dickinson, co-founder and chief executive officer of Luxtera.

The Darpa contract covers two-thirds of the costs of extending research into 40 gigabit-per-second photonic transceivers in the next 18 months. Luxtera will provide one-third of the research funds.

Dickinson said the program's first phase of research had involved the integration of four 10-gigabit dense wave-division multiplexed channels on a single CMOS chip.

What makes this photonic transceiver unique is Luxtera's ability to put 40 or so gigabits of information on a microchip smaller than a business card.

The commercial industry is currently using CMOS chips that transmit data at 4 gigabits per second.

Higher Speeds

Under the new contract, the goal for Darpa's Epic program is to develop a transceiver that can send data back and forth at speeds of 100 gigabits per second.

"This is a technology that can ... replace copper wire everywhere it is being used for communications," Dickinson said. "There is no reason to use copper if you can use fiber."

"The chip has potential use on aircraft, ships and in satellites, wherever data transfer is needed," said Jagdeep Shah, program manager at Darpa and manager for the Epic program. "The military always has a need for better communication. If they had new devices and tools, they could do more than they are doing now."

Fast communications is essential for the military. The Epic program seeks to reduce the size, weight and power required for communications by combining photonics and electronics in a single chip. This would be extremely valuable in military airplanes, said Shah.

Luxtera must test its technology to transfer data over long distances. It now has the capability to send data over short distances.

Moving More Data

Luxtera's chip could be used in future computers to make them faster so that they could move more data in a shorter period of time, said Mike Vildibill, director of advanced programs at Santa Clara-based Sun Microsystems.

"The capabilities developed under the Epic program could be useful for chip-to-chip communications in a computer or local area networks for communications within a building," Shah said.

Companies such as San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc. or Science Applications International Corp., which have a large square footage, could transfer data from one corner of the building to the opposite.

But the commercial use of this chip is a ways out, as this chip is still being developed in Darpa's Epic program.

Sun Microsystems employs several hundred workers in the San Diego area.

"We have been working closely with Luxtera for three years now on Darpa-funded research and development projects," Vildibill said.

The company launched in 2001 in Pasadena when two scientists, Eli Yablonovitch and Axel Scherer, a professor at the California Institute of Technology, approached investor John Oxaal of Sevin Rosen Funds in Palo Alto, which invested $7 million.

In 2002, the startup received a $2 million grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and then a second round of venture funding totaling $17 million.

Luxtera has received sufficient venture capital to hire its 55 employees and go after research and development projects.

"Our technology costs a lot--building chips is expensive because we just build one or a handful of one," Dickinson said. "It would be less expensive to mass produce one type because of the manufacturing costs.

"We compete mainly with companies like Intel Corp.," Dickinson said.

Intel was not available for comment.

"I think this technology could carry the company for 50 years," Dickinson said.