24 March 2016

Semtech announces initial production release of quad 25G chipset for 100G SR4 optical modules and AOCs

Semtech Corp of Camarillo, CA, USA, which supplies analog and mixed-signal semiconductors for high-end consumer, enterprise computing, communications and industrial equipment, has announced the production release of its GN2108 and GN2109 chipset for quad-channel 100G-SR4 optical interconnects operating at 25.78Gb/s.

The GN2108 is a quad-channel clock & data recovery (CDR) chip with integrated vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) drivers, and the GN2109 is a quad-channel CDR with integrated transimpedance amplifiers (TIAs). A full suite of on-chip features minimizes external components and helps users to speed up their hardware and firmware development. The GN2108 and GN2109 chipset offers users developing optical modules, active optical cables and optical interconnects what is claimed to be best-in-class link performance, high flexibility and a low overall solution cost.

The GN2108 VCSEL driver was architected to compensate for optical distortion introduced by VCSELs. This enables several benefits, including extended reach well beyond the 100G-SR4 standard to greater than 300m over OM4 multi-mode fiber (and greater than 150m over OM3 multi-mode fiber), operation with lower-bandwidth and lower-cost VCSELs, and operation with lower VCSEL bias settings for lower power and higher VCSEL reliability. The GN2108 and GN2109 chipset's comprehensive digital circuitry, together with a set of analog-to-digital (ADC) and digital-to-analog converters (DAC), implements a complete set of alarms monitoring and test features, which enables the use of cost-effective micro-controller units (MCUs) and simplifies module-level firmware design (speeding time-to-market) as well as aiding module debugging and production testing. In addition, the GN2109's receiver input sensitivity and crosstalk performance makes it suitable for both SR4 multi-mode as well as PSM4 single-mode optical interconnects.

"The GN2108 and GN2109 chipset has strong traction with our customers," says Dr Timothy Vang, senior director of datacom marketing for Semtech's Signal Integrity Product Group. "The performance and feature set of the GN2108 and GN2109 is enabling our customers to quickly bring to market winning solutions for 100Gbps QSFP28 and active optical cables (AOCs) for datacenters and a wide range of other applications," he adds. 

Semtech is demonstrating the GN2108 and GN2109 by appointment in booth 1383 at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC 2016) in Anaheim, CA, USA (22-24 March). The GN2108 and GN2109 are in initial production now. Semtech offers comprehensive design assistance, including field- and factory-based support.

Tags: 100G optical modules

Visit: www.ofcconference.org

Visit: www.semtech.com