Privately held integrated optical communications component and sub-system developer ColorChip Ltd of Yokneam, Israel has begun production of 100G QSFP28 10km transceivers.
The range is based on the emerging 4WDM multi-source agreement (MSA), supporting large data centers and mobile backhaul applications. The transceiver is interoperable with 100G CWDM4 and CLR4 2km transceivers, as it is identical in the hardware design, and likewise offers a cost-effective solution in a small QSFP28 form factor. The 100Gbps 4WDM 10km and CWDM4 2km transceivers are being demonstrated at the European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC 2016) in booth #717 at the CCD Congress Center, Düsseldorf, Germany (19-21 September).
The 100Gbps CWDM4/CLR4 QSFP28 2km transceiver is currently shipping in volumes of tens of thousands to tier-1 datacenters, system vendors and telecom operators. Similar to the 2km offerings, ColorChip's 100G 10km 4WDM transceiver is characterized by high density, low power consumption (~2.5W) and robust performance with an extended link margin that supports a 10km reach with a 6.3dB link budget when forward error correction (FEC) is enabled. The firm says that the 100G 10km transceiver leverages its core strengths of optical head to PCB integration, as well as the volume manufacturing efficiencies achieved by what is claimed to be a unique industrialized optics production approach.
ColorChip's optical head is based on the its SystemOnGlass integrated optical technology, which is a proprietary waveguide-in-glass photonic lightwave circuit (PLC)-based optical platform coupled with fully automated photonic integration of active and passive optical elements, creating a dense, multi-lane optical head. This approach eliminates the need for free-space optics and allows ColorChip to deliver an optical head characterized by nested multiplexing, low optical losses and high coupling efficiencies, resulting in what is said to be a reliable, low-cost solution. The SystemOnGlass photonic integration expertise is based on wafer-scale PLC manufacturing and automated optical head assembly, enabled by ColorChip's industrialized optical manufacturing approach at the heart of the firm's family of high-speed transceiver products.
"The latest $45m round of financing the company completed in the last 12 months is intended to fuel the company with sufficient means to quickly address the growing market demand for top-of-rack, hyper-scale applications," says CEO Yigal Ezra. "ColorChip has been making tens of millions of dollars investments to expand the company production capacity of the SystemOnGlass-based optical head manufacturing as well as building off-shore production lines that will facilitate high-volume, low-cost transceiver integration and testing.
