Munich, Germany-based Silicon Line (www.silicon-line.com) is the unchallenged world leader in developing and providing innovative ultra-low-power optical link technology that enables the use of thin, long, lightweight and very high speed ‘active’ optical cables for a wide array of consumer electronics products – including TVs, set-top boxes, video game consoles, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) headsets and related devices – as well as commercial and industrial applications. ‘Active’ refers to powered electronics integrated within the cable.

Clear evidence of Silicon Line’s global leadership in ultra-lower-power optical technology can be seen not only by its steadily evolving line of leading-edge and industry-first products – with more than 25 different products now in use – but also in its pivotal role within the HDMI Forum, where it has successfully led efforts to enhance support for active optical cable technology standards in the latest specification, HDMI 2.1.

Founded in 2005 as an outsource integrated circuit (IC) design house, Silicon Line quickly developed proven expertise in ultra-low-power, analog and mixed-signal chip design. Billions of ICs based on its designs have been used in products of major brand-name manufacturers.

Building on its core competencies, Silicon Line soon began to develop its own products with the aim of providing the world’s most power-efficient and best-in-class ICs for optical data transport, specifically targeting applications in consumer electronics. Silicon Line now has a wide portfolio of physical layer ICs plus associated serializer/deserializer (SerDes) ICs for multi-gigabit optical links, and it holds multiple patents associated with these products. In addition to HDMI technology, Silicon Line technology is employed in optical links for devices using DisplayPort and USB 3.1 connections.

Most recently and marking a major new stage in its evolution, Silicon Line has developed proprietary technology and manufacturing methods for optical modules (the tiny circuit boards inside cable connectors), resulting in a dramatic reduction in production cost, so that optical cables are affordable to consumers for use with 4K and 8K TVs, AR/VR headsets and other very high bandwidth applications.