VI Systems GmbH, a developer of ultra-high speed optical engines for data communications, has partnered with what it termed “a leading high-speed IC manufacturer” to showcase what it says are the first prototype transmitter evaluation boards for data rates of up to 4x25 Gbps. The prototype was displayed at the Chinese International Optoelectronic (CIOE) exhibition in Shenzhen.

The transmitter evaluation board targets customer designs based on the next-generation of short-reach 100-Gbps Ethernet and Infiniband EDR applications using parallel data channels of up to 25 Gbps per channel. The Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) has already defined the first interfaces to operate at data rates of 25 and 28 Gbps.

The evaluation board features a programmable driver IC and the V25-850C4, a proprietary four-channel 850-nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) chip array as the light source. The VCSEL chip array has a pitch size of 250-um to match the standard pitch size of ribbon fibers.

The transmitter is equipped with four pairs of high-speed electrical connectors for differential signal input, and four channels of 50/125-um ribbon fiber as optical output. The fiber is terminated with a standard MT connector.

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