Macom combines lasers with PICs for 100G Datacentres
Macom has announced a silicon photonic integrated circuit integrated with lasers (L-PIC) to provide 100G transmit solution for CWDM4 and CLR4 applications.
"Silicon-based photonic integrated circuits, or PICs, enable integration of optical devices such as modulators and multiplexer onto a single chip. We believe that Macom's L-PIC solves the key challenge of aligning lasers to the silicon PIC with high yield and high coupling efficiency, making the adoption of silicon PICs a reality for high-speed optical interconnects within the Datacenter," said Vivek Rajgarhia, VP of Strategy, High-Speed Networking, for Macom.
The MAOP-L284CN device features four high bandwidth Mach-Zehnder modulators integrated with four lasers (1270, 1290, 1310, and 1330nm) and a CWDM multiplexer, with each channel operating at up to 28Gb/s. The Etched Facet Technology (EFT) lasers are attached to the silicon PIC using a proprietary Self-Alignment process (SAEFT) to provide high coupling efficiency, according to the company.
The L-PIC operates on a standard single mode optical fibre, and includes integrated tap detectors for fibre alignment, system initialization and closed loop control. A single fibre aligned to the output edge coupler of this 4.1 x 6.5 mm die is the only optical requirement for implementing this device into QSFP28 transceiver applications.
Macom is also offering the MASC-37053A modulator driver integrated with CDR, matched with this L-PIC for optimized performance and power dissipation.
Macom's L-PIC will be on display for private demonstrations at OFC 2016, March 22-24th in Anaheim, CA.
