- News
23 December 2010
GigOptix and Civcom win grant to develop highly integrated 40Gb/s transponder
GigOptix Inc of Palo Alto, CA, USA, which designs modulator and laser drivers and transimpedance amplifier (TIA) ICs based on III-V materials as well as polymer electro-optic modulators for fiber-optic communications systems, and Civcom Devices and Systems Ltd of Petach-Tikva, Israel, which develops and manufactures dynamic opto-electronic components and modules, have been awarded a US–Israel Bi-national Industrial Research & Development (BIRD) Foundation grant to develop low-power, highly integrated components and modules for next-generation 40Gb/s and 100Gb/s communication systems.
The grant will initially help to fund the development of a small form factor (SFF) 40Gb/s RZ-DQPSK transponder. GigOptix will develop an integrated 40Gb/s RZ-DQPSK optical modulator and the corresponding broadband amplifiers to drive the modulator, while Civcom will develop and manufacture the 40Gb/s RZ-DQPSK SFF transponder.
The BIRD Foundation provides free assistance in locating strategic partners from both countries for developing joint projects, working in cooperation with the chief scientist’s office at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Employment in Israel, and with the US Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
“The BIRD Foundation acts to encourage collaboration between Israeli and American companies in various fields of technology,” says its executive director Eitan Yudilevich Ph.D. “Consumers’ use of smartphones and the advent of cloud computing are requiring network operators to upgrade to faster 40Gb/s infrastructure to keep pace with increasing bandwidth demand,” he adds. “GigOptix and Civcom are combining outstanding US and Israeli human resources and technologies to develop an industry-leading telecommunications solution to address these demanding network operator requirements.”
Under the grant, GigOptix will leverage its Thin Film Polymer on Silicon (TFPS) technology to implement an integrated 40Gb/s RZ-DQPSK optical modulator in a single package. Currently, 40Gb/s RZ-DQPSK optical modulation is implemented using two separate lithium niobate modulators: the first implements RZ modulation and the second DQPSK modulation. The integrated GigOptix solution will be significantly smaller to the discrete approach (smaller than one of the competing lithium niobate modulators). Furthermore, GigOptix’s broadband RF driver and optical modulator teams will optimize the interoperability between the modulator and the driver to enable further reduction in power consumption and overall footprint of the electro-optic transmission system. This size and power reduction will enable Civcom to shrink the size of its 40G RZ-DQPSK transponder to the size of current 10G transponders.
“The BIRD Foundation has helped many technological collaborations come to fruition between US and Israeli companies,” states GigOptix’s chairman, CEO & president Dr Avi Katz. “Close cooperation with Civcom, an optical transponder pioneer, on this innovative 40Gb/s transponder will significantly help in improving our TFPS technology and accelerate the time to market of our innovative solutions.”
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