- News
14 March 2018
CST Global proves feasibility of uncooled, ridge-waveguide CWDM DFB lasers for transmitting 25Gbps
© Semiconductor Today Magazine / Juno PublishiPicture: Disco’s DAL7440 KABRA laser saw.
III-V optoelectronic foundry Compound Semiconductor Technologies Global Ltd (CST Global) of Hamilton International Technology Park, Blantyre, near Glasgow, Scotland, UK (a subsidiary of Sweden’s Sivers IMA Holdings AB) says that - as part of its involvement in the UK government-funded SUPER 8 research project - it has proven the feasibility of its uncooled ridge-waveguide CWDM distributed feedback (DFB) lasers to transmit at 25Gbps.
“The SUPER 8 project uses CWDM (coarse wavelength division multiplexing) architecture to provide optical filtering, so that eight 25Gbps data channels, each with its own laser, can be transmitted simultaneously, at different wavelengths, on the same optical fiber,” says Euan Livingston, VP sales & marketing. “The uncooled ridge-waveguide DFB lasers we have made, and successfully tested, form part of a low-cost solution with reduced power and increased reliability over existing DWDM technology,” he adds.
“The feasibility shows that a 200Gbps ultra-high-speed data communications platform for use by hyper-scale cloud data centers is now proven,” Livingston continues. “High-capacity networks of this type, with greater transmission rates and a lower cost base, will also be essential to cloud services, video-on-demand and IoT [Internet of Things] markets. It clearly shows that the CWDM DFB lasers being developed within the SUPER 8 project are on track for full commercialization.”
SUPER8 project funding totals £1.1m, of which CST Global will receive £318,039 - a joint venture between Cardiff University and epiwafer foundry and substrate maker IQE plc of Cardiff, Wales, UK - and photonic integrated circuit (PIC)-based transceiver manufacturer Kaiam of Newark, CA, USA (which has a primary manufacturing plant in Livingston, Scotland, UK).
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