ECOC Exhibition honours optical connectivity innovation
Author: Joe Peck
Eight companies have been recognised at the ECOC Exhibition Industry Awards 2026 for innovations in optical connectivity.
The awards, presented in Málaga, Spain, recognise developments across optical modules, test and measurement, fibre infrastructure, and access networks, including technologies for photonics, quantum computing, and AI data centres.
The winners are Avencia Tech, China Telecom, Ciena, Corning Optical Communications, Furukawa Electric, Keysight Technologies, Lumentum, and Semtech Corporation.
Michael Lebby, Awards Committee Chairman at the ECOC Exhibition, says, “Congratulations to this year’s winners of the ECOC Exhibition Industry Awards 2026 for their contributions and innovations to the optical communications industry.
“It is great to see such strong momentum across the industry as new challenges and opportunities emerge from the sectors of photonics, quantum computing, fibre infrastructure, and AI data centres.”
Optical connectivity award winners
The award categories and winning products are:
• Best Optical Module: Ciena’s Vesta 200 6.4T CPX
• Best Optical Test & Measurement Process: Keysight Technologies’ N4378A Lightwave Component Analyzer (LCA) – 220GHz
• Fibre Infrastructure Innovation: Furukawa Electric’s Snap-Beam Connector: Compact, Detachable Optical Connector for PIC Integration
• Optical Access Innovation: China Telecom’s Industrial Network All-Optical Intelligent Connectivity (Industrial PON)
• Optical Communication Innovation: Corning Optical Communications’ CPO FlexConnect fibre
• Optical Component (Chip/Wafer) Innovation: Semtech Corporation’s 224Gbps per lane TIA family for linear pluggable optics
• Optical Component (Package/OSA/Fibre) Innovation: Lumentum’s VCSEL-based FOWLP optical engine for AI scale-up networks
Two further awards were presented as part of the Post Deadline Awards:
• Higher optical communications value chain technology & products: China Telecom’s Optical Access Network ‘Network-Compute-Intelligence’ Integrated Intelligent Interconnection
• Lower optical communications value chain technology & products: Avicena Tech’s LightBundle eKit: 1Tbps evaluation kit for microLED-based interconnects
The ECOC Exhibition Industry Awards recognise technologies and companies in the optical communications sector. The 2026 awards covered developments intended to address requirements for AI, cloud, and high-capacity connectivity.
