Quantifi Photonics acquires SmarTest Electronics

The acquisition includes substantial research and development and manufacturing facilities in the city of Buriram, Thailand. The additional production capability will allow Quantifi Photonics to expand production of components used in the company’s test instrumentation as it ramps up sales to leading network equipment manufacturers around the world.

SmarTest Electronics was founded by electronic test industry veterans Federico Lipparini and James Zhang, who will stay on in the newly formed subsidiary, Quantifi Photonics Thailand. Federico and James are well-known in the electronic test and measurement industry, both having worked for over 20 years in test and measurement instrument and semiconductor design including key roles at Teledyne LeCroy, Synthesis Research, Centellax (Keysight), Tektronix, and Picosecond Pulse Labs.

The pair have extensive experience in the development of instruments and microwave circuits for generating, recording, and analysing high-speed electrical signals used in communication networks, such as clock synthesizers, bit error rate testers, signal generators, oscilloscopes and data acquisition circuits.

CEO of Quantifi Photonics, Dr Andy Stevens, says the two companies have successfully launched a number of new products and the acquisition enables even faster progress on new instruments to meet engineers’ ever-expanding test requirements for 800G capable transceivers, silicon photonics and co-packaged optical devices.

Dr Stevens says, “We are extremely happy to bring Federico and James’ incredible talent and expertise into the Quantifi Photonics group. As optical and electrical technologies converge, it’s getting harder for manufacturers to perform a broad range of electrical and optical tests efficiently and at scale. With this added capability, we’re on-track to become the leading supplier of mixed-signal test solutions with Federico and James already working on a number of innovative products.”

Smartest Technologies has been an exclusive supplier of advanced electrical test equipment to Quantifi Photonics since 2020, including PPGs and the PAM4 enabled 29GBaud BERT recently announced at OFC 2022. The acquisition will increase investment into a range of advanced electrical test equipment, beginning with a 56GBaud PAM4 BERT for 800G scheduled for release later this year.

SmarTest co-founder Federico Lipparini says, “We’re excited to join forces with Quantifi Photonics and become the leader in the test and measurement of optical transceivers and photonic devices. The skills and expertise of our companies are highly complementary and we now have a team with incredible capabilities and a value proposition unmatched in our market. We look forward to working together and executing on our long-term strategy.”