Shattering the 'copper or optics' paradigm: humble plastic could become key material in race to conquer AI data center market - it is cheaper, lighter, thinner and more power efficient

With the expansion of data centers and the rise of generative AI, LLMs, IoT and video streaming services, the demand for advanced interconnects is higher than ever.

Conventional interconnects using copper have critical bandwidth limitations caused by the ‘skin effect’, where the current flowing through the cable is concentrated at the surface of the conductor. Optical interconnects, while offering high capacity over longer distances, require significant capital expenses for short-reach, high-volume links deployment.

Point2’s E-Tube provides a low-cost, low-loss broadband dielectric waveguide solution that could serve as an advanced alternative to existing electrical and optical interconnects in high-speed, short-reach communication links. It’s 80% lighter and 50% less bulky than copper cables, and could reduce power consumption and the cost of optical cables by 50%, with picosecond latencies that are three orders of magnitude better.

New partners

The metal film laminated rectangular dielectric waveguide has been shown to achieve an impressive level of throughput‑distance product, bending radius, and channel density without requiring a complex manufacturing process. It can be deployed for 800G/1.6T/3.2T cable speeds and beyond.

You may not have heard of it before, but that’s about to change as Point2 recently announced plans to partner with Bosch Venture (the venture capital arm of the Bosch Group) and Molex to commercialize its E-Tube technology, replacing electrical and optical interconnects in high throughput links, including (but not limited to) 100/400 Gbps board-to-board communications.

“Escalating network capacity demand in future AI/ML data center and automotive use cases requires a new approach to cable interconnect,” said Jairo Guerrero, VP and GM of the Copper Solutions business at Molex. “Point2 has developed an E-Tube platform that can scale to the connectivity requirements of data centers and future automotive network architectures. Partnering with Point2 to commercialize E-Tube is a natural fit for Molex’s connectivity business and helps position our company to better respond to growing customer demands.”