Fujitsu unveils surface-mount 100G/400G modulator

Fujitsu Optical Components Ltd. says it has successfully commercialized a compact 100G/400G DP-IQ lithium niobate (LN) modulator with a flexible printed circuit (FPC) electrical interface.

One of the features of LN modulators is modulation with minimal wavelength chirping – a desirable characteristic for ultra-high speed, long-haul DWDM optical transmission. The product is also much smaller than traditional modulators, which will make it easier to mount the device into 100G/400G coherent optical transceivers, the company claims.

Fujitsu will display samples of the product at OFC 2014 this week, with shipment availability starting on July 1, 2014.

Futjitsu’s new modulator with compact size and low drive voltage will support both 100G DP-QPSK and 400G DP-xQAM modulation formats. Fujitsu says it enabled the modulator to support both modulation formats by improving the LN modulator chip characteristics and integrating two IQ modulators and polarization beam combiners.

The new product also enables direct connection to surface mount technology (SMT) drivers, which will help to reduce the size and drastically improve the mounting into optical communication equipment, Fujitsu says. The new device is about half the volume compared with conventional 100G DP-QPSK LN modulators, the company asserts.

Fujitsu says it maintained the same driving voltage as conventional 100G DP-QPSK LN modulators by adopting a new processing technology along with a chip design to improve the modulation efficiency of the LN modulator chip.

The 100G/400G DP-IQ LN modulator is also compliant with OIF specifications.

New services such as mobile broadband, social networking, cloud computing, and video streaming have led to a rapid increase in the volume of communications traffic. This has created a great demand for 100G optical networks using coherent transmission systems. R&D activities related to the commercialization of next-generation 400G optical networks have also gained significant momentum. For the transmission portion of these coherent optical transceivers, 100G/400G DP-IQ modulators supporting both 100G DP-QPSK and 400G DP-xQAM are required.

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