13 June 2018

Kaiam launches enhanced 100G ‘CWDM4+’ LightScale2 transceivers for higher performance and reliability than standard CWDM4

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Kaiam Corp of Newark, CA, USA (which makes optical transceivers for hyperscale data centers) has made available an enhanced series of 100G ‘CWDM4+’ transceivers that offers substantially higher performance than the CWDM4 standard and is optimized as well as tested for added reliability.

The firm says that multi-source agreement (MSA)-standard transceiver specifications are often inadequate to account for losses due to variations in data-center fiber plant, adding to the cost of deployment. Furthermore, even low failure rates of transceivers add substantial operating cost for data centers. Kaiam says that its new enhanced specification and increased reliability transceiver addresses both concerns without additional cost.

The XQX5600 series of enhanced CWDM4+ transceivers (in the QSFP28 pluggable form factor) provide -1dBm minimum Tx optical modulation amplitude (OMA), 3dB more than required by the CWDM4 standard. This, in turn, supports 3dB more link budget than the CWDM4 standard requires, supporting more robust links in the face of various real-world data-center link impairments. Similar to a space-grade production process, each fully assembled module undergoes environmental test and burn-in prior to shipment, as well as routine chip-level screening, resulting in higher reliability.

Kaiam claims that it can deliver this enhanced CWDM4+ performance at no cost increase over standard CWDM4 due to its superior technology platform. The firm’s LightScale2 architecture simplifies both optical and high-speed electrical paths. Based on Kaiam’s OWB (optical wire bond) technology, the optical path is said to use far fewer components than competing legacy solutions, resulting in lower optical losses. Signal integrity is improved by eliminating flex circuits and hermetic gold boxes, enabling very high product yields even under more challenging CWDM4+ specs.

“Kaiam is uniquely positioned to address the data-center deployment issues encountered by our customers,” claims Jeremy Dietz, VP of global sales & marketing. “By enabling more link budget and delivering higher reliability than standard products, many of these issues can be avoided,” he adds. “We have moved the technology needle considerably, proving that the CWDM4 standard specs are overly conservative in today’s world. Our recently expanded production capacity in Livingston, UK - combined with that from our partnership with Broadex - provides customers with quick access to improved value.”

See related items:

Kaiam partners with Broadex for manufacturing and supply of transceiver modules in China

Kaiam shipping LightScale2 platform in volume for 100G CWDM4

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Visit: www.kaiam.com