5 March 2014

Oclaro unveils 10G wideband tunable SFP+ module based on new InP laser platform, consuming under 1.5W at high operating temperature

In booth #3145 at the Optical Fiber Communication (OFC 2014) conference & exposition in San Francisco (11-13 March), Oclaro Inc of San Jose, CA, USA (which provides components, modules and subsystems for optical communications) is demonstrating a tunable SFP+ module based on a new InP tunable laser platform.

Building on Oclaro’s history of 10G tunable DWDM products, the new tunable SFP+ module is based on the latest version of a compact monolithically integrated laser Mach-Zehnder (ILMZ) chip, enabling the module to achieve what is claimed to be leading-edge optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) performance while providing about 60% reduced power consumption and 50% smaller form factor than existing tunable XFP offerings.

Tunable across the full C-band (with 96 channels on the ITU-T 50GHz grid) and enabling multi-rate operation at 9.95-11.3Gb/s, Oclaro says that the new tunable SFP+ module is a key building block for next-generation data-center, metro and regional optical network equipment because it can reduce the size and power consumption for 10G connections while supporting the network operators’ rapidly increasing capacity needs driven by data-heavy network applications.

First-generation tunable SFP+ modules were not widely adopted because they did not meet the critical requirement of less than 1.5W of power consumption at high operating temperatures without compromising performance when stacking multiple transceivers on high-density line cards. In addition, some of these first-generation products were designed with a non-standard mechanical footprint that allowed for heat dissipation, but did not enable the re-use of existing reference board designs.

Oclaro says that, with its new tunable SFP+ laser design, it has now solved these critical issues through an innovative chip design and the use of next-generation materials that enable the module to be fully compliant to the SFP MSA form factor and operate at 1.5W at 70°C with excellent OSNR tolerance.

“Oclaro has been at the forefront of tunable laser technology advancements with its leading portfolio of iTLAs, 300-pin MSA transponders and pluggable T-XFP transceivers,” claims Yves LeMaitre, president of Optical Connectivity Business at Oclaro. “With our new tunable SFP+ module, we’ve leveraged this expertise to solve the challenges our customers face when they need high-density cards operating at high temperatures while remaining within the power budget and offering the same level of performance and reliability as previous tunable offerings.”

Featuring proprietary laser and modulator control algorithms integrated in the product firmware, the new tunable SFP+ module takes advantage of new materials that improve the performance of digital supermode distributed Bragg reflector (DS-DBR) tunable lasers designed on an InP photonic integration platform. This includes the use of aluminium quaternary active layers embedded into the device structure to significantly reduce power consumption and shrink the size of the laser and modulator chip.

To highlight the tunable laser's ability to deliver reduced power consumption at very high temperatures, during OFC Oclaro is demonstrating the SFP+ module operating up to 85°C, validating the ability of users to develop higher-density line-card solutions in the future, when cooling capacity is expected to be even more challenging.

The new tunable SFP+ module is sampling now. Volume production will be ready in third-quarter 2014.

See related items:

Oclaro announces standards-compliant multi-rate 10G DWDM tunable SFP+ optical transceiver

Tags: Oclaro

Visit: www.oclaro.com