Marvell acquired silicon photonics device startup Polariton Technologies for an undisclosed amount.

In a statement, the California-based chip designer said the acquisition would further strengthen its end-to-end connectivity portfolio and help to advance optical performance scaling to 3.2 Tb/s (3.2T) and beyond.

Founded in 2019 after spinning out from ETH Zurich in Switzerland, Polariton develops integrated photonics and electro-optic modulators based on plasmonic circuits. According to the company, plasmonics offers significant advantages over traditional silicon photonics as it enables higher-density parallel optical links with ultra-low energy per bit.

The acquisition of Polariton’s technology and engineering talent will allow Marvell to combine the startup’s plasmonics offerings with its own existing silicon photonics and digital signal processor capabilities, the company said, meaning it will be “well positioned” to deliver “highly integrated, scalable solutions for next-generation data center architectures,” including coherent, scale-across, and data center optical interconnect platforms.

“Marvell continues to invest in advanced optical technologies to support the rapid evolution of AI and cloud data center infrastructure,” Sandeep Bharathi, president of Marvell's Data Center Group, noted. “The addition of Polariton extends our optical roadmap with differentiated modulation technology and a highly specialized team. This investment reflects our commitment to innovation across multiple technology approaches as we continue to build on our leadership in high-speed connectivity.”

The acquisition is the second for Marvell this year and the third for the chip designer in the last five months.

In January, the company announced it had acquired PCIe and CXL switching silicon provider XConn Technologies for approximately $540 million in cash and stock. The month prior, Marvell said it was acquiring optical interconnect startup Celestial AI for $3.25 billion, with the potential for that deal to total $5.5 billion, contingent on Celestial achieving certain product milestones.