New manufacturing plant for high output DFB laser diode chips for signal light sources

Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. (Head office: 2-6-4 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Hideya Moridaira) will work to increase manufacturing capacity of high output DFB laser diode chips for signal light sources by newly establishing a plant inside the Iwate Operations of Japan Semiconductor Corporation (6-6, Kita Kogyo-Danchi, Kitakami City, Iwate; President and CEO: Takeshi Sugahara; Hereinafter “JSC”; ^Note), as well as installing a partial production line inside the Thailand plant. The total investment amount is expected to be JPY 38.0 billion.

As telecommunications traffic rapidly increases at data centers following the widespread use of cloud services and generative AI, network transmission speeds are increasing from the current 400Gbps to 800Gbps and 1.6Tbps. At data centers, intensity modulation optical transceivers are broadly used, and in recent years, increased focus has been directed toward silicon photonics technology, which has strengths in terms of small size, high integration, low power consumption and low cost. DFB laser diode chips are often adopted as a high output, single wavelength light source, and demand is rapidly growing. Also, high-speed data processing and reducing power consumption at hyperscale and edge data centers have become major issues, and the introduction of next-generation network switch devices utilizing CPO (Co-Packaged Optics) is expected to lead to expansion of the bandwidth and improved power consumption. At Furukawa Electric, we have been manufacturing DFB laser diode chips since 2000, and we have realized a chip with one of the industry’s highest optical output powers (100mW). This chip has been delivered to numerous customers including optical transceiver manufacturers, and it is highly regarded for possessing top class output power and highly reliable technology. We also expect this product to be adopted in ELSFP (External Laser Small Form Factor Pluggable), an external light source for CPO.

Furukawa Electric Group member Furukawa Fitel Optical Device Co., Ltd. (Head office: 6, Yawata-kaigandori, Ichihara, Chiba; President: Toshikazu Mukaihara) will rent a building in JSC’s Iwate Operations and utilize it as a new manufacturing site for DFB laser diode chips. By receiving assistance from JSC, which possesses semiconductor manufacturing experience as a part of the Toshiba Group, we will establish a highly efficient, stable supply system. In addition, at Furukawa Electric Group member Furukawa FITEL (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (Address: Rojana Industrial Park, 1/71 Moo 5, Tambol Kanharm, Amphur U-Thai, Phranakom Sri Ayutthaya, Thailand; Managing Director: Hidetoshi Tsukamoto), we will install facilities for the inspection and assembly of DFB laser diode chips inside the No. 2 plant currently under construction and scheduled to be completed in February 2026.
Through these responses, we will increase DFB laser diode chip manufacturing capacity by over 500% in 2028 compared to FY2025. Going forward, we will continue development of DFB laser diode chips and related technology and support the advancement of the telecommunications society.

DFB laser diode chip