News: Optoelectronics
4 October 2023
Coherent’s 200G PAM4 DFB-MZ laser wins ECOC Award for Most Innovative Product
Materials, networking and laser technology firm Coherent Corp of Saxonburg, PA, USA says that its 200G four-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4) distributed-feedback laser and Mach–Zehnder modulator (DFB-MZ), combined monolithically in a photonic integrated circuit (PIC), has won the 2023 ECOC Exhibition Industry Award for Most Innovative Product in the category of Innovative Photonics Component.
The PIC enables 200G per lane in both re-timed and linear pluggable 800G and 1.6T transceivers. The 200G PAM4 DFB-MZ was first demonstrated at March’s Optical Fiber Communications conference (OFC 2023) in San Diego, CA, USA (an industry first, it is claimed). Coherent again gave a live demonstration of the 200G PAM4 DFB-MZ at the European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC 2023) in Glasgow, Scotland, UK (2–4 October). This live demonstration showcases the DFB-MZ that transmits a 200G PAM4 signal over a 6km fiber.
“We have combined into one PIC the functional elements and integration experience of several of our most advanced devices, which are each breakthrough innovations on their own,” says chief marketing officer Dr Sanjai Parthasarathi. “This PIC incorporates our knowledge from electroabsorption-modulated lasers, IQ modulators for coherent applications, and tunable lasers with Mach–Zehnder modulators. It will enable higher-performance, longer-reach PAM4 optical links.”
Featuring a channel-specific chirp control that is said to provide excellent dispersion management, the DFB-MZ supports wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), including local area network (LWDM) and coarse (CWDM) wavelength plans. A cooled DFB-MZ supports LWDM for reach up to 10km. An uncooled DFB-MZ supports CWDM for shorter reaches.
