News: Optoelectronics
6 March 2022
NeoPhotonics demos InP components capable of 120Gbaud operation supporting 800G LR, ZR, and ZR+ transmission
NeoPhotonics Corp of San Jose, CA, USA – a vertically integrated designer and manufacturer of silicon photonics and hybrid photonic integrated circuit (PIC)-based lasers, modules and subsystems for high-speed communications – has used its indium phosphide (InP)-based coherent receiver and coherent modulators, coupled with its ultra-narrow-linewidth tunable lasers or distributed feedback (DFB) lasers, to demonstrate 120Gbaud operation in applications ranging from 800G LR transmission to 400G long-haul transmission.
The next-generation DSP baud rate will be based on 120+Gbaud, and potential applications include 800LR (≤10km), 800ZR for DCI (≤100km), 800ZR+ for metro-core (≤1000km), and 400Gb/s ultra-long-haul transmission. Demonstrations of this level of performance are reported and listed below, showing that corresponding high-speed optoelectronic components are available to match the DSP baud rate and to enable pluggable or embedded modules at these data rates.
Using its InP-based coherent driver modulator (CDM) and intradyne coherent receiver (ICR) with more than 60GHz bandwidth, NeoPhotonics has experimentally demonstrated the feasibility of the following transmission systems at 120+Gbaud:
- Long-haul: 400Gb/s over 1500km standard single-mode fiber erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA)-only transmission system with a superior required optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) of 16.7dB at OFEC threshold;
- Regional/metro-core: 800Gb/s (with probabilistic shaping) over 1000km standard single-mode fiber EDFA-only transmission system with a superior required OSNR of 24.3dB at OFEC threshold;
- ZR DCI: 800ZR over a single-span EDFA-based 100km standard single-mode fiber with a superior required OSNR of 25dB at OFEC threshold and a transmitter output power of -6dBm; and
- Unamplified LR: 800LR over an unamplified 10km link with a 9dB link budget, and 800Gb/s ‘coherent lite’ over an unamplified 1km link with a budget of 5.2dB, both using low-latency forward-error correction (FEC) with a bit-error rate (BER) threshold at 4 x 10-3. The latter used self-homodyne coherent detection so as to significantly simplify the DSP and remove wavelength locking between transmitter and local oscillator.
“We are pleased to take this opportunity to highlight the progress we have made in pushing our high-performance indium phosphide integration technologies to even higher speeds and over longer distances to enable new potential applications in cloud and data-center applications,” says chairman & CEO Tim Jenks. “These 120Gbaud components coupled with our ultra-narrow-linewidth external-cavity ‘nano’ tunable laser or our distributed feedback lasers, along with concurrent DSP advances, could enable pluggable modules to operate at 800G for applications within and between data centers, as well as to extend the speed and reach of embedded telecom systems,” he adds.
Aspects of these demonstrations are being discussed in the following presentations at the Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC 2022) in San Diego, CA, USA (8-10 March):
- Dr You-Wei Chen, ‘Intra-Data Center 120Gbaud/DP-16QAM Self-Homodyne Coherent Links With Simplified Coherent DSP’, Session W1G.1, 9 March (8-8:15am);
- Marcel Boudreau, ‘Laser and Gain Sources for Highly Integrated Photonic Circuits’, Panel W1B: ‘Progress and Roadmap in Silicon Photonics Foundries and Supply Chains’, 9 March (8-10:30am);
- chief technology officer Dr Winston Way, ‘From Long-Haul to Intra-Data Center: Coherent Transceiver’s Spectacular Journey’, Market Watch Panel V: ‘Evolution of Coherent Transceiver Architectures for Specific Applications’, 10 March (10:30am-12pm).
