News: Optoelectronics
11 March 2020
Lumentum expands datacom laser chip portfolio for hyperscale data center and 5G wireless applications
Lumentum Holdings Inc of San Jose, CA, USA, which makes photonics products for optical networking and lasers for industrial and consumer markets, has introduced three new high-speed datacom laser chips, broadening its portfolio to enable the growth of future hyperscale data centers and 5G wireless applications.
The expected strong growth of data in hyperscale data centers and 5G wireless networks is driving increasing requirements for volume, reliability, cost and speed in datacom laser chips. Lumentum says that it is addressing these requirements by leveraging decades of experience in the industry developing advanced photonic solutions.
“To sustain the expected growth in these markets, customers critically need an experienced supplier that can provide high performance, high quality and scalability,” says senior VP & general manager, Datacom, Walter Jankovic. “At Lumentum, we leverage our high-volume manufacturing capability, unmatched materials, and laser device expertise in indium phosphide (InP) and gallium arsenide (GaAs), to meet our customer expectations for chip innovation at scale.”
Lumentum provides high-performance externally modulated lasers (EMLs) for 100G PAM4 (4-level pulse amplitude modulation) applications, enabling data centers to increase their bit rate and lower their overall power consumption. The firm says that its 50G PAM4 vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) provide high performance with customer value and production capacity. Additionally, Lumentum’s newly developed 50G PAM4 directly modulated lasers (DMLs) enable users to lower their overall cost by offering the equivalent performance of an EML for 50G and 200G applications in a simpler and lower-cost DML format.
Details of the new products are:
- 100G PAM4 uncooled EMLs for next-generation data centers. Lumentum’s PAM4-optimized 53Gbaud EMLs enable full C-temp transceiver designs without using a thermo-electric (TE) cooler. With expertise in complex EML technology, the firm has developed an industry-first uncooled, self-hermetic EML. Available to sample in third-quarter 2020, this laser chip targets the transition in data-center infrastructure from 100G to 400G by enabling a wide-temperature range and high-performance 2km PAM4 modules.
- 50G PAM4 VCSELs for high-speed short-reach optical networks. Enabled by its 6-inch GaAs wafer foundry and its experience producing high-reliability 3D sensing VCSELs at high volume, Lumentum’s 50G (28Gbaud) VCSEL provides what is claimed to be unprecedented uniformity at scale. Available to customers in second-quarter 2020, the VCSEL is suitable for non-hermetic applications from 0ºC to 80ºC, delivers extremely high yields, and is RoHS10 and Telcordia GR-468 compliant.
- 50G PAM4 DMLs for 5G mid-haul, backhaul and hyperscale data centers. Lumentum says that its DMLs use a sophisticated cavity design to operate over wide and demanding temperature ranges. Offering higher bandwidth, the 50G PAM4 (28Gbaud) DMLs provide the equivalent performance of an EML but in a smaller and more cost-effective footprint. This product is now available for sampling.
