What Is Co-Packaged Optics?_
Co-packaged optics moves the optical engine from a separate pluggable module (like an OSFP or QSFP) into the switch or GPU package itself, dramatically shortening electrical trace lengths between the silicon and the optics. This reduces signal loss, power consumption, and thermal load at the faceplate. CPO is an emerging technology aimed at overcoming the bandwidth and power bottlenecks of traditional pluggable optics in high-density AI and HPC fabrics.
Technical Details
CPO typically uses a silicon photonics or InP-based optical engine co-packaged with the switch ASIC on a common substrate or interposer, with fiber attached via a connectorized array (e.g., MPO-24 or similar). The electrical interface between the ASIC and the optical engine is very short (on the order of millimeters), which allows for higher data rates per lane (e.g., 112 Gbps PAM4 and beyond) with lower power per bit compared to pluggable modules. The fiber breakout from the CPO module is often a multi-fiber ribbon that terminates in a standard bulkhead connector on the faceplate or a separate fiber shuffle panel. CPO eliminates the need for high-speed electrical traces across a PCB to a front-panel cage, reducing signal integrity challenges and enabling denser port counts per rack unit.
How Leviathan Systems Works with Co-Packaged Optics
In our field deployments, CPO appears in next-generation switch platforms for GPU-scale fabrics, where we terminate the fiber ribbons from the CPO module into the structured cabling plant. We treat the CPO fiber array as a fixed, high-density breakout that must be handled with care to avoid micro-bends and contamination, similar to working with MPO trunk cables.
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