NeoPhotonics Corp of San Jose, CA, USA (a vertically integrated designer and manufacturer of hybrid photonic integrated optoelectronic modules and subsystems for high-speed communications networks) has launched 1310nm and 1550nm high-power distributed feedback (DFB) lasers and laser arrays for 100G silicon photonics-based QSFP28 modules for intra-datacenter applications.
With the ever-growing demand for more bandwidth, data-center operators and service providers are actively deploying low-cost, scalable, silicon photonics based 100G modules defined in industry-standard multi-source agreements (MSAs) such as CWDM4, CLR4 and PSM-4. Each of these is designed around a specific implementation of silicon high-speed analog and digital electronic devices and related photonic components. All rely on indium phosphide (InP) DFB lasers as an efficient, high-power light source.
In support of the emerging silicon photonics ecosystem, NeoPhotonics has introduced a range of high-power, uncooled lasers and laser array sources for both the 1310nm and 1550nm wavelength bands. These lasers support power of 40-60mW over a wide temperature range.
One specific 100G data-center application uses silicon photonics parallel single-mode architecture (PSM4) in a high-power laser diode array product. NeoPhotonics has partnered with Mellanox Technologies Ltd of Sunnyvale, CA, USA and Yokneam, Israel (a supplier of end-to-end InfiniBand and Ethernet interconnect solutions and services for data-center servers and storage systems) to develop laser arrays that can be passively flip-chip bonded onto Mellanox's optical engine, producing a high-volume, low-cost, electronics-style assembly for a 100G PSM-4 module.
"NeoPhotonics has opened its unique high-power, high-yield laser technology to the ecosystem," comments Mehdi Asghari, Mellanox's VP of silicon photonics. "Several key laser integration and performance features have enabled us to support our customers with a solid and growing portfolio of high-performance LinkX 100G modules and cables," he adds.
"NeoPhotonics was a pioneer in the development and volume production of InP PIC [photonic integrated circuit]-based DFB lasers and particularly in the extension of this technology to arrays," says NeoPhotonics' chairman & CEO Tim Jenks. "Among other applications, we have shipped several hundred thousand of these lasers over the last decade into demanding DWDM applications," he adds.
In booth 3301 at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference & Exhibition (OFC 2016) in Anaheim, CA, USA (22-24 March) NeoPhotonics is exhibiting its suite of standard and small-form-factor photonic integrated circuit (PIC)-based components for 100G coherent line-side applications, along with its 100G client-side CFP2 and QSFP28 transceivers and its next-generation multi-cast switch for contentionless networks.
