The CPO (Co-packaged Optics) concept sector saw significant activity today, with
A recent in-depth report on the optical module industry indicates that the commercial rollout of CPO is accelerating noticeably, driven by leading companies such as
On the Scale-up side, because vertical scaling networks like NVLink are proprietary and closed systems, leading manufacturers possess the vertical integration capabilities necessary to implement CPO. The urgency for commercial advancement is higher here, but constraints related to production yield and capacity on the supply side are equally critical. On the Scale-out side, CPO has achieved a breakthrough from zero to one, and its adoption rate is expected to increase gradually. However, the improvements in power consumption and cost are relatively modest, with total power optimization of only 2% and total cost optimization of just 3% in a three-tier network architecture, leading to a more measured pace of commercialization.
Furthermore, the CPO switch supply chain is highly fragmented, involving multiple suppliers across various segments like laser sources, ELS modules, and photoelectric testing. Attention is advised on segments with clear divisions of labor that have already engaged in joint R&D with CPO switch manufacturers or have anticipated orders, such as high-power continuous wave (CW) light sources and FAUs.
**Core Advantages and Practical Shortcomings of CPO** CPO fundamentally alleviates bottlenecks in traditional data center network architectures at the physical layer by integrating the optical engine and the switch ASIC chip on the same substrate. Its core advantages manifest in three key areas:
First, it significantly reduces power consumption, saving over 50% compared to DSP optical modules. For instance, the
In the long term, within two-tier network scenarios, CPO solutions could reduce total cluster costs by 7%, network costs by 46%, and optical module costs by 86%. However, CPO is not without its drawbacks. A single optical engine can cost between $35,000 and $40,000. High-density integration presents severe thermal challenges, necessitating supporting liquid cooling systems. Because the optical engine is固化 integrated with the main chip, a fault typically requires replacing the entire board card, resulting in poorer maintainability and flexibility. Additionally, the lack of unified industry standards leads to poor cross-vendor compatibility; currently, there is no interoperability consensus between
**Multiple Parallel Technology Paths with Varied Transition Focus** The industry is not solely focused on CPO but is exploring multiple technological pathways evolving in parallel, forming a spectrum from pluggable to co-packaged solutions.
LPO (Linear Pluggable Optics) reduces power consumption, cost, and latency by removing the DSP chip from traditional transceivers and shifting signal processing to the host ASIC. However, it faces limitations in transmission distance and challenges with system compatibility. NPO (Near-packaged Optics), positioned as a "built-in pluggable" solution, offers advantages over CPO such as a pluggable optical engine, compatibility with standard PCB work, no requirement for advanced packaging resources, and suitability for mass production. It has certain disadvantages in power consumption and latency and is considered a key transitional solution towards CPO.
XPO (Extra-high density Pluggable Optics) represents an aggressive evolution of the pluggable route. In March 2026,
Additionally, the CPC (Co-packaged Copper) solution primarily promoted by
Considering comprehensive supply chain maturity and performance advantages, CPO's overall cost-performance advantage compared to NPO and pluggable solutions is not yet pronounced, and customer acceptance needs to improve. Key variables to monitor going forward include the iteration of switch chips and SerDes channels, and the dynamic comparison between NPO mass production yields and CPO's total cost.
**Complete Disassembly of an NVIDIA CPO Switch Structure**
Using the
The switch is equipped with four Quantum-X800 ASIC chips, manufactured using TSMC's 4nm process. Each chip offers 28.8T bandwidth, resulting in a total bandwidth of 115.2T, and contains 107 billion transistors. The optical side incorporates 72 units of 1.6T optical engines. These are grouped into three-piece removable optical sub-assemblies, with each optical engine corresponding to eight single-channel 200Gbit/s micro-ring modulators (MRMs). The laser source utilizes 18 ELS modules, housing a total of 144 continuous wave (CW) DFB laser chips, each with a power output of approximately 300-350mW. The system uses a total of 1440 optical fibers for transmission and reception combined—1152 for transmit/receive functions and 288 polarization-maintaining fibers—corresponding to 144 single-mode MPO ports and 36 polarization-maintaining MPO ports.
Key manufacturing challenges exist in four core areas: Micro-ring Modulators (MRMs): Compared to Mach-Zehnder Modulators (MZMs), MRMs are extremely compact (area 25-225μm²), have low power consumption, and natively support Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM). However, they are highly temperature-sensitive (approximately 10-100 times more than MZMs), requiring精密 temperature control systems, and their nonlinear characteristics pose challenges for higher-order modulation.
PIC and EIC Packaging: Evolution is progressing from 2D and 2.5D towards 3D packaging. 3D packaging enables shorter transmission distances and higher integration through vertical interconnects, but significantly increases process difficulty and yield pressure, making it a current hotspot and challenge in CPO technology research.
OE and ASIC Chip Packaging: Taking the packaging of the
Fiber Coupling: CPO systems require optical fibers to be aligned with waveguides on the chip with sub-micron precision, an operation that must be performed within the thermally active environment of a switch chassis. This difficulty far exceeds that in pluggable module scenarios. Edge coupling is the current mainstream solution, relying on micro-lens focusing and waveguide taper structures to achieve efficient coupling.
**Highly Fragmented Supply Chain: Focus on Well-Defined Core Segments**
The current high level of fragmentation in the CPO supply chain is a major obstacle hindering its accelerated commercialization.
Examining the supply chain map for
On the Scale-up side, the supply-side constraints for CPO are more pronounced. Due to the proprietary nature of vertical scaling networks like NVLink, leading manufacturers with vertical integration capabilities are pushing CPO implementation. While the commercial drive is stronger, yield and capacity bottlenecks remain critical hurdles. On the Scale-out side, CPO's improvements in power consumption and cost are relatively limited, leading to a slower commercialization pace.
Investors are advised to prioritize two types of segments: First, segments with clear分工 that are already participating in joint R&D with CPO switch manufacturers or have anticipated orders, including high-power CW light sources, FAUs, and ELS modules. Second, segments expected to see弹性 incremental growth compared to pluggable optical modules, including CPO coupling/test equipment, polarization-maintaining fibers, advanced packaging (PIC and EIC packaging), ASIC chips and OE packaging, and fiber optic distribution boxes.
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