Microsoft has acquired Lumenisity® Limited, a start-up based in the U.K. that provides hollow-core fiber (HCF) with a proprietary design said to offer multiple advantages over traditional solid core fiber.

Per the company’s website, Lumenisity was formed in 2017 as a spinoff from the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton to commercialize breakthroughs in the development of hollow-core optical fiber. In 2021 and 2022, it won the Best Fibre Component Product for its NANF® CoreSmart® HCF cable in the European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC) Exhibition Industry Awards.

A press release said that Microsoft plans to use Lumenisity’s technology and experts to accelerate innovations in networking and infrastructure. It noted that light that propagates in an air core has significant advantages over traditional cable built with a solid core of glass, including increased overall speed and lower latency as light travels through HCF 47% faster than standard silica glass. For further details on Lumenisity’s technology, see the company’s presentations at www.lumenisity.com.