Page 27 - EE Times Europe Magazine – November 2023

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GREENER ELECTRONICS | PROCESSING
Astrape Networks: Greening the Data Center

By Rebecca Pool

The photonics startup has won
€1.6 million to supercharge data center
efficiency.

n a move that could slash the energy consumed by data centers
while overcoming bandwidth bottlenecks, Netherlands-based
Astrape Networks has won €1.6 million in pre-seed funding to
Iscale up its integrated photonics switching technology. Principals
at the company, which emerged from deep-tech startup accelerator
HighTechXL last year, are determined to get their nanosecond optical
switching and control system out of the lab and into the industry as
soon as they can.
“Our chief architect, Nicola Calabretta, has been working on fast
optical switches for more than 10 years and has built several proto-
types,” CEO Francesco Pessolano said. “We now see that data centers
are facing many problems … so we want to show that our technology
is viable and keeps its performance and power-saving promises in an
industrial setting.”
Astrape hopes to “have a product in around five years’ time,”
Pessolano added.
Astrape Networks founders (left to right) Nicola Calabretta,
GATHERING SPEED Willem Jan Withagen and Francesco Pessolano
As traffic volumes inside data centers have soared, industry players (Source: Astrape Networks)
have turned to multi-tier electrical switching architectures to cope,
trading off inefficient and power-hungry operations for speed. But
as bandwidth bottlenecks and latency continue to throttle datacom, SCALING UP
optical switching is garnering favor. Optical switches support higher Astrape Networks intends to scale up its technology eventually to
bandwidths than electrical switches and do not require power- operate with tens of thousands of servers, as are found in today’s
consuming electrical-optical and optical-electrical conversions, typical data center. Before widespread industry adoption can take
reducing the numbers of transceivers needed in a network. place, however, developers must resolve challenges around such issues
Microelectromechanical system (MEMS)-based switches have gained as packaging, fiber alignment and interface electronics for integrated
the most traction and have already reached some data centers, but photonics.
relatively slow switching times, topping out at tens of milliseconds, For Astrape and fellow European integrated photonics players, suc-
have stymied adoption. Alternative optical technologies, including cess hinges on having a solid supply chain in place. With a rich heritage
semiconductor optical amplifiers integrated with arrayed waveguides, in photonics tech development, the Netherlands has a head start: Com-
promise nanosecond switching times. This is what Astrape Networks is panies including LionX International, Smart Photonics and Phix are
set to serve up. already pushing back the boundaries in photonics design, fabrication
Calabretta developed the approach behind Astrape’s nanosecond and packaging processes. And in recent years, photonics-tech–related
optical switching and control system at Eindhoven University of organizations like PhotonDelta, one of Astrape’s lead funders, have
Technology, where he is a professor associated with the poured millions of euros into startups across Europe to kick-start an
Electro-Optical Communication group at the Center for Integrated integrated photonics industry.
Photonics. The technology comprises an indium phosphide switch Pessolano is confident that the requisite supply chain is emerging
with optical amplifier wavelength selectors and an arrayed waveguide quickly. “Quite frankly, I don’t think we would have a chance to grow if
grating router, controlled by an FPGA switch scheduler. It reportedly this wasn’t in place,” he said.
can reach a switching speed of 3.7 ns. Such blistering speeds could The CEO is also betting that Astrape’s integrated photonics switch-
open the door to more efficient and reconfigurable optical data center ing technology will trigger even more industry growth. “If you talk to
networks in which bandwidth could be dynamically allocated according anyone in the industry, they will say if there’s one thing that will take
to demand. photonics production to larger volumes, it’s a data center application,”
Astrape is gearing up to demonstrate its system in March at the he said. “That’s what Astrape Networks is working on, and we want to
Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) in San Diego. The take this role.”
plan is to operate the optical switching system across a few servers to Looking to the future, Pessolano believes that technologies like
demonstrate industry viability. Astrape’s might reduce the need for new data centers. “I can’t guar-
“It’s been a surprise to see so much interest,” Pessolano said. “I antee this, but I hope that we will help to slow down the rate of data
hope people at OFC will watch our demo and say, ‘This is actually center building,” he said. “Our technology can make data centers more
possible’—and maybe a larger company will want to scale up the efficient, and if we can somehow slow down the trend to build more,
technology with us.” that would be a real success.” ■

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