Five optical component manufacturers including LAPIS Semiconductor Co Ltd, Mitsubishi Electric Corp, Oclaro Inc, Renesas Electronics Corp and Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd have announced the release of new common specifications for transmitter optical sub-assemblies (TOSAs) and receiver optical sub-assemblies (ROSAs). The specifications are based on the 40Gb/s serial multi-source agreement (XLMD2-MSA, effective from July 2011) for 40Gb/s pluggable transceiver modules such as the CFP MSA.
The transmission speed of 40Gb/s is the highest commercially available rate that uses the simple light on/off keying or serial transmission scheme. CFP transceivers and 300-pin MSA transceivers are widely available for the 40Gb/s serial application.
In addition to ITU-T 40G serial transmission standards VSR2000-3R2 for 2km and P1I1-3D1 for 10km, the IEEE has defined a 40Gb/s serial interface for 2km (40GBASE-FR). Demand for 40G serial transmission is growing in the fields of telecoms as well as data and IP communications.
In existing 300-pin MSA and CFP transceiver module markets, XLMD-MSA fiber pig-tail TOSAs and ROSAs have been widely adopted for use in 40Gb/s serial transceivers. With the introduction of the CFP2/4 MSA, thin miniature TOSAs and ROSAs are essential for downsizing the pluggable transceiver modules.
The XLMD2-MSA aims to establish compatible sources of 40Gb/s miniature optical transmitter and receiver devices embedded into the compact 40Gb/s serial pluggable optical transceiver modules. Companies adopting the XLMD2-MSA will promote MSA-compliant products in order to meet customer demand and expand the market.
The XLMD2-MSA specifications include mechanical dimensions, interfaces with a common printed circuit board (PCB) design, pin assignment and electrical characteristics for the following compatible optical devices: (1) cooled EMwL (external modulator with laser diode) TOSA with built-in driver IC; (2) cooled EMwL TOSA; (3) cooled DML (direct modulation laser diode) TOSA; (4) uncooled DML TOSA; and (5) PIN-TIA (PIN photodiode with a transimpedance amplifier) ROSA.
The specifications are available now at the XLMD-MSA web site.
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