M/A-COM: the future and beyond

Late last year, M/A-COM added BinOptics to its ever-growing line of industry acquisitions. Where next for the high performance semiconductor supplier?

M/A-COM intends to cash in on data centre growth and more.

Given its recent BinOptics deal, no matter how you look at it, M/A-COM has set itself up for the future. This, the latest in a steady stream of acquisitions, secures the company a rock solid foothold in a network market, slated for growth, growth and more growth.

Globally, Cisco has predicted that mobile data traffic will grow 11-fold from 2013 to 2018, representing an annual compound growth rate of 61%. More data traffic will drive demand for data storage and networks across the board, an opportunity that M/A-COM is set to capitalise on.

"M/A-COM has been a provider of high performance analogue, RF, microwave, millimetre-wave solutions and now we have added photonics as well," says Vivek Rajgarhia, director of strategy.

"Our strategy has been to create a portfolio of different semiconductor technologies - CMOS, GaN, SiGe, InP GaAs and now silicon photonics - so we can pick and choose the right technology for the right application, market and performance parameter," he adds.

M-A/COM's Vivek Rajgarhia: "We can pick and choose the right technology for the right application, market and performance parameter."

The first key addition came in 2010, when the then predominantly GaAs semiconductor developer, M/A-COM, acquired high frequency point-to-point GaAs chipset maker, Mimix Broadband, to bolster its high performance semiconductor offering.

Then, in 2011, the company bought Optomai, adding GaAs and InP-based ICs and modules for 40G and 100G fibre optic networks to its CATV/broadcast and point-to-point/infrastructure businesses.

Following this entry point into the 100G optical space, the company snapped up Mindspeed in 2013, adding more weight to its 100G optical networking products and gaining a firm foothold in SiGe markets.

GaN RF semiconductor developer, Nitronex, followed in early 2014, extending M/A-COM's product reach from pulsed avionics to continuous wave applications. And then silicon photonics design company, Photonics Controls, and microelectronics prototyping business, IKE Micro, were scooped up soon afterwards.

The latest acquisition of InP-based laser diode maker, BinOptics, positions M/A-COM strongly as a merchant supplier of performance laser diodes in optical communications markets. But, crucially, as Rajgarhia highlights: "This is a transformative acquisition, moving us from purely optoelectronics and into photonics."

With BinOptics, M-A/COM can now flood data centre, mobile backhaul, silicon photonics and access network markets with InP lasers. And factoring in all acquisitions, the company has the key the building blocks to provide 100G and 400G transceivers for high speed datacomms.

"We have been, for example, supplying TIAs, CDRs and modulators, but with BinOptics, we now have the laser chip as well," highlights Rajgarhia. "Photonics Controls provides us with silicon photonics so now we have both transmit and receive functions, and all the key building blocks to enable a 100G transceiver."

"We have essentially consolidated all the high speed semiconductor content in 100G and 400G transceivers and are well positioned from the data centre to the longhaul optical segments," he adds.

100G transceiver: With its acquisitions, M-A/COM now offers a one stop shop for all the key components for their customers to build next generation transceivers.

Business as usual

So what now for BinOptics? Rajgarhia confirms that for the company, it is business as usual. "Their photonics products are completely complementary to our capability and we are expanding capacity."

Indeed, in M-A/COM's recent earnings call, chief executive John Croteau highlighted capacity constraints in data access markets. Given this, he said the company intends to double BinOptics's capacity in six months, quadruple output in a year, and as he added: "[There] is exponential growth potential, and ... revenues could scale accordingly."

Rajgarhia also expects significant demand from silicon photonics markets. "Silicon photonics is the upcoming field especially in data centres, and we are designing silicon photonics chipsets for 100G and beyond applications," he says.

However, the strategy director doesn't expect the technology to become mainstream in 100G equipment modules for at least two years. "For data centre markets overall we could use silicon photonics, InP or directly modulated lasers," he adds. "And while data centres are definitely a big growth segment, metro and longhaul markets will also see significant growth."

But BinOptics doesn't just boost M-A/COMs photonics offering, it also provides the company with a well established customer base across Asia Pacific. Industry reports claim nearly 100% of BinOptics's revenue comes from this region, and without a doubt, M-A/COM will, again, capitalise on this fact

"BinOptics is strong in Asia and we can expect to expand here, as well as into Europe and North America," says Rajgarhia.

And while Rajgarhia will not be drawn on any future acquisitions for M-A/COM, he asserts: "We do not want to get into the same space as the Broadcoms. We are in the high perfomance, not the commoditised space, and in plain words I describe our strategy; 'if the product is difficult to make and difficult to sell, then that's the business we are in."