Components and Subsystems

Semiconductor company Broadcom has unveiled a new generation of gearbox PHY IC devices, the BCM82332, BCM82793 and BCM82864, designed for modern data centre and enterprise networking applications.

With the general availability of switch chips that have flexible, multi-speed port interfaces supporting 10G, 40G, 100G and emerging Ethernet speeds, new gearbox PHY solutions are needed to ensure robust signal integrity and optimise port adaption.

MaxLinear, a provider of radio frequency and mixed-signal integrated circuits for communications applications, has unveiled the MxL9207, a quad-channel lithium niobate (LiNbO₃) Mach-Zehnder (MZ) modulator driver IC for next-generation 100Gb/s optical networks.

The MxL9207 supports complex modulation schemes for coherent transmission in ultra-long-haul networks, which have the most challenging system requirements. With a 19mm x 13mm SMT package, the device is suitable for both new and legacy 100Gb/s coherent system designs.

NeoPhotonics is sampling a Class 40 high-bandwidth micro intradyne coherent receiver (HB-ICR) capable of supporting 64Gbaud symbol rates, double the bandwidth of a standard 32Gbaud coherent receiver.

The HB-ICR supports higher-order modulation up to 64QAM which, when coupled with the company’s ultra-narrow linewidth laser, would enable single wavelength data transmission rates of up to 600Gb/s over distances of up to 80km.

Kaiam, a developer of high-performance datacom optical transceivers, has launched LightScale2, an upgraded optical integration platform enabling ‘unprecedented’ performance and scalability. The company is currently sampling CWDM4 100G QSFP28s modules based on this architecture.

HUBER+SUHNER Cube Optics will present its latest, ultra-compact, extended LAN-WDM optical sub-components at this year’s European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC) in Düsseldorf, Germany, booth 259.

The new optical sub-components – which conform to the IEEE 802.3bs 400GBase-LR8/FR8 proposal and are compatible with the CFP8 form factor – comprise a compact, directly-reflecting, wavelength multiplexer. The product builds on the proven, reliable design applied in 100GBase-LR4/ER4 and 40GBase-LR4/ER4 transceivers. 

II‐VI, a provider of pump laser modules and micro-optics for optical amplifiers, has introduced new uncooled 980nm pump laser modules that feature patent-pending in-package wavelength stabilisation to enable optical amplification within small transceiver packages. These are increasingly required as high-bit-rate coherent transceivers continue to be designed into ever smaller packages to meet the needs of telecom carriers and cloud service providers for equipment with greater density requirements.

UK distributor Laser Components is pleased to offer laser sources manufactured by Redfern Integrated Optics.  These high-performance single-frequency external cavity lasers (ECLs) are based on Redfern’s proprietary technology, PLANEX, which consist of an amplification chip and a planar waveguide structure (PLC) with an integrated Bragg grating.

Connectivity and sensor specialist TE Connectivity has launched a new line of micro quad small form-factor pluggable (microQSFP) connectors and cages for the next generation of pluggable optical interconnects.

MicroQSFP interconnects can help solve key challenges relating to bandwidth, thermal performance and energy costs in data centres as data rates go ever higher.

VI Systems, a German developer of high-speed optical components for datacom, has introduced the A50-300C90, an optical modulator driver IC that supports data rates of up to 56Gb/s with non-return-to zero (NRZ) modulation.

The target applications are silicon photonics and integrated optoelectronic devices for short- and medium-reach data transmission in data centres and high-performance computing. Serial data rates based on 56Gb/s are being developed to support emerging architectures using Common Electrical Standard (CEI-56G) interfaces, 64G Fibre Channel and proprietary products.

VI Systems, a specialist in ultra-high speed optical components for datacom networks, has introduced the A50-150C driver integrated circuit suitable for driving vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) at speeds of up to 54Gb/s in the non-return-to-zero (NRZ) modulation format.

The target applications are short-reach optical interconnects for data centre and high-performance computing applications. The chip could enable a future generation of optical interfaces based on directly modulated high-speed VCSELs using 50Gb/s signalling on each lane.