Technical Insight
Infineon unveils 40 Gbit/s SiGe chipset (Fiber News)
Infineon has introduced what it describes as the industry s first 40 Gbit/s SiGe mux/demux chipset for SONET/SDH communication systems. The new chips are designed for OC-768 transmission systems used in emerging applications such as metropolitan-area networks (see ). "The optical networking market will boom in the next four years, and the OC-768 segment is expected to leapfrog all other transmission technologies," said Christian Winkelmeyr, general manager of Infineon s high-speed communications business unit. "We now have OC-768 SONET/SDH framing and mapping expertise, and the SiGe mux/demux chipset is a key component of Infineon s solution for 40 Gbit/s communication systems." The company s chipset consists of 16 2.5 Gbit/s input channels multiplexed to a single serial 40 Gbit/s output data stream, supporting data rates of 39.8 43 Gbit/s for forward-error correction. The multiplexer also supports both NRZ (non-return to zero) and RZ (return to zero) formats, and the demultiplexer integrates clock and data recovery functions with an input sensitivity of 50 mV. Both chips operate from a single 5.5 V supply voltage. Although companies such as Velocium and Vitesse are backing indium phosphide for next-generation 40 Gbit/s systems, Infineon has clearly sided with SiGe, along with AMCC the latter recently launched an OC-768 transimpedance amplifier (see Compound Semiconductor June 2001, p29).