Fujikura and US Conec have reached an agreement for licensing and collaboration that enables both companies to manufacture intermateable multi-fiber and duplex VSFF (Very Small Form Factor) connectors. The MMC, a multi-fiber connector employing a reduced-size 1x16-fiber MT-style ferrule (TMT), improves MPO port density by a factor of three, supporting higher density cabling infrastructure with very low insertion loss performance. The new TMT ferrule has now been tooled by both US Conec and Fujikura with full intermateability eliminating assurance of supply concerns. The TMT ferrule uses the proven alignment structure of the MT-16 ferrule which is deployed in MPO-16 connectors and is compatible with standard fiber-optic cabling technology employing 125 µm diameter optical fibers with 250 µm pitch. US Conec's ELiMENT™ MDC connector, a duplex fiber-optic connector with proven 1.25 mm diameter ferrule technology specified in the SFP-DD, QSFP-DD and OSFP pluggable transceiver MSAs, has the same footprint as the MMC and provides three times the density over the duplex LC format while supporting port breakout architectures for emerging transceiver designs. The collaboration to develop and deliver MMC and MDC connectors maximizes the synergy between Fujikura and US Conec while enabling a multi-vendor supply chain. Next-generation link architectures employing 400G and beyond with pluggable transceivers or co-packaged optics are demanding higher-density fiber-optic cabling solutions that cannot be met with existing MPO, LC and SC technology. The VSFF MMC and MDC connector formats meet those challenges for both carrier and data center performance requirements.