PicoJool Inc has introduced 200G vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) products, targeting the bandwidth bottlenecks in hyperscale AI infrastructure.
The product and its performance
PicoJool’s new VCSELs achieve a bandwidth exceeding 37GHz, enabling 200G per lane operation. The company will begin sampling chip-level products in the third quarter of 2026, including quad 100G, quad 200G, and 32x50G non-return-to-zero (NRZ) micro-VCSELs for slow-and-wide architectures. These devices are designed for pluggable, near-packaged optics (NPO) and co-packaged optics (CPO) solutions, with PicoJool already collaborating with system startups and hyperscalers to define next-generation optical interconnects.
Technical and manufacturing context
VCSELs have served as the backbone of data-center optical connectivity since 1996, valued for speed, reliability, and cost efficiency. PicoJool claims its 200G products remove uncertainty about whether VCSEL technology can scale to meet AI workloads. The company outlines a clear roadmap extending to 800G, 1.6T, and 3.2T speeds, positioning optical links as competitive with copper in cost and manufacturability.
Manufacturing is underpinned by a partnership with WIN Semiconductor, the world’s leading VCSEL producer for 3D sensing, which has shipped over one billion chips in the past decade. PicoJool has transferred its 200G designs and process recipes to WIN and other gallium arsenide (GaAs) foundries. Because GaAs-based VCSEL production capacity is unconstrained, the company avoids supply bottlenecks that limit competing laser technologies.
Strategic significance and timeline
“By building on a GaAs supply chain that has already shipped billions of chips, PicoJool has solved both sides of the equation: record bandwidth and the production scale to deliver it,” said Pat Gelsinger, general partner at Playground Global. The combination, he noted, turns a lab achievement into an industry shift, creating a viable path from copper to optics at AI scale.
PicoJool will begin sampling its 200G VCSEL products in the third quarter of 2026, with high-volume ramp expected in early 2027.
Looking ahead
PicoJool’s 200G VCSELs represent a critical inflection point for AI data center optics. By delivering record bandwidth on a proven, high-volume GaAs manufacturing base, the company directly addresses the cost and scalability barriers that have historically limited optical adoption. If the roadmap to 3.2T holds, PicoJool could accelerate the industry’s transition from copper to optical interconnects, reshaping the economics of AI-scale networking.
