Follow up comments by fibeReality, posted on LinkedIn.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mark-lutkowitz-b22abb2_in-looking-back-at-an-article-by-ayar-labs-activity-7092163073699975168-GNsL?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

"In looking back at an article by Ayar Labs (https://lnkd.in/gZDzJkfN) related to OFC 2023, discussing its “technology unveiling,” fibeReality finds it revealing that the supplier (please see: https://lnkd.in/e35v5-7M) brought up its investigation into new fiber attach methods. Dealing with V-grooves is more complex than initially expected. Indeed, our intelligence points to Ayar Labs farming out the procedure to Fabrinet’s Thailand facilities (please see: https://lnkd.in/gYu5asd2). We understand that the contract manufacturer is performing this service satisfactorily, albeit, manually on a machine (an alternative from a different vendor providing an automated procedure, results in substantially less yield). For now, Ayar Labs has a requirement for 24 fibers. Given that the necessary mating force for an MPO connector increases with the number of fibers, the situation should be expected to become exacerbated with future designs. In fairness, there are tradeoffs with all fiber attach techniques. For example, there is an FAU solution providing for a preassembled block of glass with polished fibers, along with automatically aligning the full block in a single step. However, these FAUs are quite costly and evidently, the alignment robot has difficulty with higher channel combinations, and so a DR8 may have to be done as two DR4s. 

Another potential hurdle for Ayar Labs is that it will apparently become clear that there is a necessity for a fiber dongle for management purposes by the customer. In addition to the cost of the PM fiber, the operations folks will also not be thrilled in that they would expect such a requirement to be addressed in the silicon. Further possible perceptions of the Ayar Labs offering as bulky/power-hungry, as well as grappling to find an app requiring a 2km-reach, may also be problematic."