A team of researchers at Keio University (President: Kohei Itoh) has successfully developed a multi-core graded-index plastic optical fiber (GI-POF) capable of ultra-high-speed data transmissions at up to 106.25 Gbps per core. This technology will enable high-density, low-latency, and high-capacity optical communications essential for next-generation AI data centers. Research was conducted by a team from the Keio Frontier Research & Education Collaborative Square (K-FRECS) at Shin-Kawasaki including Project Professor Yasuhiro Koike (Director of the Keio Photonics Research Institute) and Project Senior Assistant Professor Kenta Muramoto.
With the rapid growth and integration of generative AI in recent years, data centers responsible for large-scale computation are increasingly demanding ultra-high-capacity and low-latency communication technologies than ever before. In particular, short-reach optical interconnects for large clusters of GPUs and other accelerators play a critical role in determining overall system performance in AI data centers.
To meet these needs, the Keio research team has developed a technology to fabricate high-speed GI-POF with a multi-core structure in a single step. The multicore GI-POF developed using this method enables ultra-high-speed data transmission of over 100 Gbps per core, while significantly reducing costs by eliminating the complex multi-core fabrication processes required for conventional glass optical fibers. The team also demonstrated that using the GI-POF greatly reduces signal noise and transmission errors compared to glass optical fibers. This indicates the technology's potential to simplify signal compensation, thereby enabling low-latency and energy-efficient optical communication.
These results were accepted and presented in two papers at OFC 2025 (The Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition), the world's largest international conference in the field of optical communications.
