13 March 2014

IQE’s VCSEL epiwafers enable IBM/Chalmers to achieve record 64Gb/s over multimode fiber

IQE plc of Cardiff, Wales, UK says that its vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) epiwafer technology has been used to develop high-performance optical links, as reported by IBM and Chalmers University of Technology in paper Th3C.2 at the Optical Fiber Communications conference (OFC 2014) in San Francisco (11-13 March).

As data transmission rates across optical interconnects continue to increase, from today’s 25-28Gb/s to next generation interconnects with speeds in excess of 50Gb/s, there is a need for step-change performance improvements in the optoelectronics and electronics hardware that support this technology, says IQE.

VCSELs provide the primary light source for optical interconnects and are now in production for high-capacity interconnect cables in datacenters and high-performance computing systems.

Recent work by IBM and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden used IQE’s VCSEL wafers to achieve a record speed of 64Gb/s. Data was transmitted over 57m of multimode optical fiber.

The VCSEL epiwafer material was provided by IQE’s Photonics division in Cardiff. The VCSEL device was developed and fabricated at Chalmers and the full interconnect (including drive and receive circuitry) was produced, assembled and tested at IBM.

IQE says that the interconnect performance reveals the full potential of the VCSEL devices enabled by the epitaxial material provided by the firm.

See related items:

IBM sets record speed of 64Gb/s for data transmission over multimode optical fiber

IQE and Chalmers report first 40Gb/s VCSELs operating at up to 85°C for data-centers

Tags: IBM SiGe Chalmers VCSELs

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