II‐VI Incorporated (Nasdaq: IIVI), a global leader in optical components and modules for undersea networks, today announced that it has reached the commercial milestone of shipping more than 1,000 LightFlow™ Flexband wavelength selective switch (WSS) modules for deployment in undersea optical networks.

Cloud service providers are driving the demand for next-generation undersea networks with reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexers (ROADMs) embedded in branching points on the ocean floor. Undersea ROADMs leverage highly reliable WSS technology to cost-effectively manage the exploding growth of data traffic between datacenters on separate continents, by dynamically allocating bandwidth or rerouting communication. II-VI has now shipped more than 1,000 WSS modules for undersea applications since it received its first such commercial orders in 2019.

“The market for undersea-qualified WSS continues to grow, leveraging technology that has demonstrated high reliability,” said Dr. Richard Smart, Senior Vice President, ROADM Business Unit. “We are uniquely positioned in the undersea WSS market, thanks to the ultrahigh reliability of our liquid-crystal WSS, which is field-proven with more than 15 years of high-volume deployments. The WSS is the most recent addition to II-VI’s portfolio of undersea-qualified products, built over two decades of innovation and that includes an industry-enabling product line of high-reliability semiconductor lasers and optical components. These products are powering a revolution in undersea capabilities, driving the convergence of communications and computing, enabling new services, and improving global sustainability.”

The ultrahigh reliability of II-VI’s WSS was achieved with an athermal liquid-crystal technology, which is controlled by very simple circuits and consumes very low power. The LightFlow Flexband WSS is available in 1×1, 1×2, 1×4, 1×8, and 1×9 configurations. II-VI’s broad portfolio of products for undersea networks includes pump lasers, filters, and detectors.

II-VI’s expertise in both liquid-crystal and liquid-crystal-on-silicon technologies enables the company to provide the industry’s widest range of WSS offerings, including the most reliable WSS for undersea, the most cost-effective low-port-count WSS for access networks, and the most compact high-port-count twin-WSS for next-generation core ROADM networks.