Surface Mount Photonics (SMP) is an innovative and practical solution to eliminate the high costs and complexity that have plagued single-mode optical components since their inception. SMP is a broadly applicable, innovative architecture that provides an alternative to expensive free space optics. With SMP, a long needed transition is now possible: optical components can be assembled in a similar fashion to semiconductor electronics resulting in devices that are simpler, smaller and far less costly.

Surface Mount Photonics simplifies the way optical components are built by eliminating the expense of lenses, active alignments, hermetic packages and most serial optical assembly processes. SMP chipsets are assembled with flip-chip die bonders, streamlining the assembly process for optics and converging it with electronics assembly processes to drive cost out of the supply chain.

The technology underpinning the SMP approach can be divided into three levels:
1. SMP Chips
2. Fiber-Ready Optical Assemblies (FROA)
3. Fiber-Aligned Packages

SMP devices can be used to address Enterprise, Access and Long Haul applications, providing a nearly universal solution for dramatically reducing the cost of optical components.