Nokia is acquiring optical networking tech startup Elenion

Finnish telecom networks maker Nokia announced Wednesday it has agreed to acquire privately-held New York-based tech company Elenion Technologies to boost its optical networking business and broaden its offering to telecoms operators. The value of the acquisition was not disclosed.

Founded in 2014, the New York-based Elenion designs and develops highly integrated System-on-Chip optical engines for Telecom, Data Center and Networking applications. The company is focused on driving innovation in silicon photonics technology. Built around world-class multi-disciplinary experts in silicon photonics, lasers, electronics and advanced packaging, Elenion is developing next-generation photonic integrated circuit technologies and solutions for a broad range of datacom and telecom applications.

“Ownership of these key assets brings time-to-market and cost advantages to Nokia’s broad portfolio of networking solutions by applying the massive scale and economies of silicon design and manufacturing to the optical supply chain,” Nokia said in a statement.

Silicon photonics makes it possible to integrate complex devices onto a single chip and create new form factors and functions that simply could never be addressed with discrete devices. Elenion’s proprietary technology allows it to use the same factories that are used in the electronics industry.

“We modify their processes so that we can use these factories to build chips that manipulate light, in addition to electrons. Using this technology, we can build silicon photonic chips that move light through optical fibers, dramatically improving the performance and reducing the cost of moving data around a data center and around the world,” the company claimed on its website.