Lumentum showcases laser chips for 5G wireless and datacenter transceivers

At the Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC 2019) in San Diego (5-7 March), optical and photonic optical component and subsystem maker Lumentum Holdings Inc of Milpitas, CA, USA is highlighting high-speed laser devices that enable next-generation 5G wireless and datacenter transceivers.

Offering a family of high-performance laser chip solutions, including vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL), directly modulated lasers (DML), and externally modulated lasers (EML), Lumentum says it is leveraging its expanded manufacturing footprint and integral materials expertise in indium phosphide (InP) and gallium arsenide (GaAs).

“Our commitment to innovation and market leadership at the fundamental laser chip level is backed by a strong R&D pipeline which includes new higher-bandwidth DMLs, a series of new wide-temperature-range EMLs and cost-efficient short-reach VCSELs, and underscores our commitment to convert innovative foundational technologies into next-generation customer solutions,” says Walter Jankovic, senior VP, Datacom.

Lumentum’s lasers provide a wide range of data rates, NRZ and PAM4 modulation formats, and customization, operating in both cooled and uncooled configurations addressing the 10G to 400G wireless and data-center transceiver market. Devices are qualified as self-hermetic – capable of reliable operation in non-hermetic enclosures per Telcordia GR-468 standards. Lumentum says that its DMLs offer high reliability and use a pioneering cavity design to operate at high speed over the wide temperature ranges demanded by the latest 5G wireless systems.

“We are the first-to-scale with self-hermetic DMLs for CWDM4 while driving the best value for cost-sensitive hyperscale data centers,” claims Mike Staskus, product line manager, Datacom.

Communications VCSELs for short-reach multi-mode fiber solutions and PAM4 leverage Lumentum’s expertise in high-volume 3D sensing laser technology and volume manufacturing. They deliver top performance in data centers and can be supplied as a single bare die or 1x4 arrays, says the firm.

“New EMLs optimized for PAM4 applications are now shipping in volume to enable the move to next-generation 400G solutions that dramatically reduce the price per bit in data centers,” says Staskus. “Lumentum is the first company to ship volume-production quantities of these high-speed EMLs for PAM4,” he claims.

Lumentum says that its laser chips enable a wide variety of standards-compliant modules for high-speed networking, e.g. 400G transceivers including QSFP56-DD DR4, FR4, LR4, OSFP FR4, LR4, and CFP8 LR8; and 100G transceivers including QSFP28 DR, FR, CWDM4, LR4, and 4WDM-20.

Tags: Optical communications

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