News: Optoelectronics
8 March 2022
Lumentum demonstrating and previewing innovations at OFC
Lumentum Holdings Inc of San Jose, CA, USA (which designs and makes photonics products for optical networks and lasers for industrial and consumer markets) is participating in partner demonstrations and highlighting its portfolio of future-ready solutions at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC 2022) in San Diego (8-10 March) at both the Lumentum booth #3415 and partner booths.
400G coherent transmission demonstrations
Lumentum is demonstrating its flex-coherent 400G CFP2-DCO modules that enable next-generation optical transport networks and data-center interconnects with NTT Network Innovation Laboratories in booth #5041 and Telecom Infra Project (TIP) in booth #3629.
NTT will demonstrate live 400Gbps coherent transmission using a C+L-band line system that will incorporate Lumentum’s pluggable 400G CFP2-DCO modules (a cost-efficient solution to the ever-increasing demand for capacity).
Additionally, TIP will demonstrate reliable optical communication links in next-generation networks using Lumentum’s 400G CFP2-DCO modules in a 400Gbps OpenROADM interoperability demonstration.
Demonstration of high-power lasers for co-packaged optics
In the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) booth #5101, Lumentum is showcasing its 1310nm distributed feedback (DFB) laser technology with a high-power continuous-wave (CW) prototype, operating at 200mW optical power, enabling OIF’s multi-vendor, co-packaged optics demonstration.
Direct detect tunable transceivers
- New 25G T-SFP28 tunable transceivers: Emerging applications, such as 5G wireless front-haul, require high-performance tunable transceiver technology at 25GB/s. Lumentum is positioned to address this market with its latest 25G T-SFP28 product, now available to sample. The firm’s T-SFP28 incorporates SmartTunable technology to simplify field deployment tasks and leverages its installed manufacturing capacity to meet the anticipated rapid growth from 5G applications.
- Industry-first SmartTunable multi-source agreement (MSA): Lumentum has formed the SmartTunable MSA with other industry suppliers to enable standardization and interoperability between multiple vendors. The SmartTunable MSA (https://smarttunable-msa.org) will be released in the coming weeks and will accelerate the adoption of direct detect tunable transceivers.
- Secure high-volume manufacturing capacity: Lumentum has established and qualified high-volume T-SFP+ manufacturing capabilities in multiple geographically diverse locations, addressing customers’ needs for supply security. To meet the needs of new, rapidly growing applications for direct-detect tunable transceivers, including fiber deep and 5G wireless front-haul architectures, Lumentum is continuing to add additional production capacity in its multiple manufacturing locations.
Innovative transport solutions enable high performance and capacity
- 16x26 TrueFlex contentionless wavelength-selective switch (WSS): Building on Lumentum’s 8x26 WSS solution enabling next-generation scalable network architectures, the 16x26 contentionless WSS leverages further innovations in switching technologies and manufacturing automation to deliver the same performance and form factor as its predecessor but is now optimized for even larger 16-degree nodes. Samples are committed to lead customers and the product will be in mass production in early 2023, supporting C, L and extended-C band wavelength plans.
- Enhanced high-port-count TrueFlex Twin WSS platforms: In its third generation, the Twin WSS platforms feature greater performance and improvements related to core technology, manufacturing processes, and supply chain robustness to cost-effectively scale manufacturing. The platforms support multiple port configurations ranging from Twin 1x9 up to Twin 1x35 and spectral bands of 5THz (C, L), 6THz (extended C, extended L) up to 10THz (integrated C+L) while delivering a uniformly high standard of performance. By maintaining form-factor compatibility with current products, the latest platforms assure existing customers a seamless migration path to refresh and revitalize customer systems’ over their lifecycle for the next decade.
- ROADM node-on-a-blade: To further pave the way for significant cost and space savings in next-generation networking equipment, Lumentum has developed a ROADM node-on-a-blade by integrating optical switching, amplification and monitoring functionality from across multiple degrees onto a single line-card. This disruptive step in the physical partitioning of ROADM nodes is supported by reliability data gathered from billions of hours of field operation of the discrete components. Commercial deployment of the first customer-specific ROADM node-on-a-blade designs will occur in 2022 with additional custom designs of increasing complexity to follow.
Enhanced high-performance datacom laser chips at higher volumes
- 100G and 200G PAM4 externally modulated lasers (EMLs): To enable next-generation hyperscale data centers to scale to higher speeds and network capacity, Lumentum is significantly expanding its manufacturing capacity for its latest high-performance 100G and 200G EML chips. Lumentum’s EML chips allow customers to deliver high-speed modules at high volume while maintaining high-quality link performance at a low cost and power per bit. Samples of the 200G EMLs are available now.
- 100G PAM4 directly modulated lasers (DMLs): For demanding and cost-sensitive applications, Lumentum has optimized its DMLs for 400G DR4/FR4 and 800G DR8/PSM8, improving bandwidth by about 10% from previous generations. These compact chips deliver increased device count per wafer and lower complexity compared with EMLs, enabling cost-effective solutions to compete with silicon photonic (SiPh)-based transceivers. Beta samples are now available.
- CW lasers: To enable SiPh-based transceivers for next-generation data-center applications, Lumentum is sampling its uncooled and high-output-power 75mW CW laser. This laser leverages the firm’s indium phosphide (InP) technology platform to integrate a semiconductor optical amplifier on chips, achieving the needed high output power at high temperature to cover 4x100G lanes with a single CW laser.
- Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs): Lumentum’s 850nm VCSELs for 25G NRZ-per-lane and 50G PAM4-per-lane applications are in volume production now with high production capacity for high-volume transceiver applications. In addition, the firm’s 940nm VCSELs and indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) photodiode pairs enable low-cost, high-performance active optical cable (AOC) applications. Lumentum’s 50G VCSELs are available to support 800G-SR4.2 transceivers. Samples for all four SWDM4 wavelengths of the firm’s VCSELs are also available.
