SINGAPORE: Transcelestial is spearheading the global rollout of laser communications (lasercomms) via the “Terabit Factory”, its Singapore-based manufacturing facility which has the world’s largest commercial lasercomms production capability.
“This manufacturing capability is not just a Transcelestial milestone – what we’re talking about here is a strategic hub in Singapore that has the potential to exponentially uplift connectivity for entire populations. An annual lasercomms deployment of this volume can create a potential bandwidth of over 10 Tbps, which translates into the capacity to connect tens of millions of users. We are excited to be in conversations with some of the world’s leading telecom and connectivity partners to roll out the technologies produced right in this facility,” said Mohammad Danesh, CTO and Co-Founder of Transcelestial.
The Terabit Factory is a 2,000ft² production facility based in Singapore with the capacity to manufacture up to 2,400 CENTAURI devices annually – the largest deployment volume of any lasercomms producer globally.
Transcelestial set up the Terabit Factory to meet the rising demand for lasercomms technology globally, across telecom, broadband, education, ports and maritime, government, defence, and more. Today, CENTAURI devices are installed in over 10 markets around the world, including Singapore, the United States, Indonesia, India, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Mongolia. Regionally, Transcelestial’s partner network is active in Southeast Asia and select countries in the Middle East, Oceania and India.
Existing communication technologies, such as fiber optics or radio frequency, are challenged by the world’s ever-growing demand for better connectivity. Wireless solutions like lasercomms, by way of CENTAURI devices, provide consistent, high-speed wireless connectivity even in congested environments or under the most demanding weather conditions. CENTAURI devices can be deployed quickly with a simple point-to-point connection, meaning organisations can now connect the last mile rapidly, flexibly and cost-effectively, without any right of way.
Key features of the Terabit Factory include:
- Robust supply chain. While most manufacturing facilities around the world have been experiencing supply chain challenges Transcelestial’s diversified approach to supply chain and product design has allowed the Terabit Factory to stay ahead of the curve by mitigating many supply chain risks and challenges currently faced by other companies.
- Sophisticated assembly line designed for rapid scalability. The floorplan and assembly line was designed leveraging a lean six sigma methodology, a framework for operational excellence, to ensure production efficiency and eliminate waste.
- Robust field performance predictions via workstation tracking and data analytics. Every device tested on the manufacturing line directly goes through robust testing to simulate real-world customer experiences. Each workstation is digitised with unique tracking features to provide maximum traceability of performance parameters and key components, while data analytics enables constant, up-to-date performance predictions and quality in the field.
- Highly automated. Assembling and aligning precision laser optics is difficult and time-consuming, traditionally requiring high volumes of manual work. Transcelestial has, over the years, developed a number of automation IPs around the assembly and characterisation of precision optics elements, vastly improving the yield of Terabit Factory’s manufacturing process.
- Data-driven and smart. Quality is at the heart of this manufacturing facility. Featuring state-of-the-art data collection capabilities, each stage of the process is tracked precisely, while data is collected to ensure that each device meets the highest standards. The Terabit Factory is fully compliant with ISO Standards: ISO 9001:2015, AS9100:2016 and ISO 14001 : 2015.
- Highly modular and future-proof. The Terabit Factory was built with Transcelestial’s future product builds in mind. Not only can the facility support the current CENTAURI 1G and 10G models, but it is also modular enough to support Transcelestial’s next generation of devices that offer 100s of Gbps whenever the need arises.
The Terabit Factory employs local engineering talent – including engineers, interns and new career professionals from local Singapore universities. The facility is expected to drive more local talent to be immersed in advanced manufacturing and have opportunities to learn and contribute to research and development alongside global field experts from Transcelestial’s technical team.
“We’ve designed – and future-proofed – a best-in-class manufacturing facility that can rapidly scale up. Creating it felt like something in a sci-fi movie, and yet, I get to step into and see our products being built every day. I’m very proud of the operational excellence we’ve achieved, and the continuous improvements being made only make the Terabit Factory second to none,” says Mark Wong, Head of Manufacturing for Transcelestial.
