24 March 2017

ColorChip demos transceivers based on uncooled CWDM4 DML technology for data-center interconnects beyond 100G

At the Optical Fiber Communications conference & exhibition (OFC 2017) in Los Angeles (21-23 March), privately held optical transceiver firm ColorChip Ltd of Yokne’am, Israel presented several optical products and technology demonstrations. The new building blocks and products feature uncooled CWDM4 directly modulated lasers (DMLs) driving both PAM4 (4-level pulse amplitude modulation) and NRZ (non-return-to-zero) modulation and packaged in QSFPx form factors.

First 200G QSFP56 PAM4 with CWDM4 DML

ColorChip gave several demonstrations using uncooled CWDM4 DML technology, including the exhibition of 200G PAM4. The demonstration consisted of a transmitter optical sub-assembly (TOSA) and receiver optical sub-assembly (ROSA) based on ColorChip’s patented SystemOnGlass technology - a proprietary waveguide-in-glass photonic lightwave circuit (PLC)-based optical platform coupled with fully automated photonic integration of active and passive optical elements, creating a dense, multi-lane optical head. Leveraging field-proven 40G/100G deployment (with extension beyond 400G), the link demonstrates the building blocks towards the realization of a compact, low-power-consumption 200G PAM4 transceiver, on the CWDM4 grid, packaged in a compact QSFP56 form factor and with a standard Duplex LC optical interface.

2x100G CWDM4 in QSFP-DD

ColorChip also gave a 2x100G ‘two in a box’ demo highlighting SystemOnGlass facilitating the implementation of an 8-channel TOSA and ROSA to create a Dual CWDM4 transceiver in either QSFP-DD or OSFP. The 8-channel optical engines, which include dual embedded CWDM4 multiplexers, were displayed in the QSFP-DD form factor. The 2x100G CWDM4 QSFP-DD transceiver is characterized by an 8x25G NRZ electrical interface and Dual Duplex-LC optical connectors.

100G CWDM4 QSFP28 in mass production and OCP-accepted

Now in high-volume production, ColorChip’s 100G CWDM4 OCP-accepted transceiver is a unique optical interconnect with power consumption of just 2.6W. It operates over a distance of 500m, which can be extended to 10km, meeting the 4WDM-10 MSA specification and covering both across-datacenter and campus connectivity requirements.

Optical module high-volume manufacturing

Since data-center traffic is growing at unprecedented rates, to meet volume demand ColorChip has raised $60m in funding over the past 18 months, significantly expanded its industrialized-optics TOSA/ROSA assembly lines in Israel, and teamed up with Thailand-based contract manufacturer Fabrinet Co Ltd on optical module integration and final test activities. In the past 6 months, ColorChip has hence doubled its production floor-space to 20,000ft2 and increased staffing to more than 300.

See related items:

ColorChip shipping 100G QSFP28 10km transceivers

SystemOnGlass optical communications firm ColorChip raises a further $20m

SystemOnGlass optical communications firm ColorChip raises $25m in growth-funding round

Tags: Optical transceivers QSFP Fabrinet

Visit: www.ofcconference.org

Visit: http://color-chip.com

Visit: www.fabrinet.com