Oclaro allies with ClariPhy for 100G coherent

MAY 26, 2010 By Stephen Hardy -- Oclaro, Inc. (Nasdaq: OCLRD) has revealed that it provided $7.5 million of the $24 million Series C funding round mixed signal semiconductor company ClariPhy Communications announced today. The two companies also have signed a co-marketing and development agreement to leverage ClariPhy's 40-nm, single-chip device expertise with Oclaro's optical technology to develop 100-Gbps coherent long-haul and ultra-long-haul optical products.

The partnership will enable Oclaro to build off of its current work at 40 Gbps to meet emerging 100-Gbps requirements. At 40G, Oclaro has focused on the differential quadrature phase-shift keying (DQPSK) and differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) modulation formats, for which it offers lithium niobate (LiNbO3) and indium phosphide (InP) components. The company also has demonstrated a fully qualified 40G DQPSK 300-pin transponder for regional and metro applications.

However, most in the industry have focused on dual-polarization quadrature phase-shift keying (DP-QPSK), paired with coherent detection, for 100G applications. Coherent detection requires a significant amount of electronic signal processing -- and ClariPhy is already working on coherent detection electronics for 40G in collaboration with Mintera.

"We expect an increasing percentage of the transceiver solutions for optical networks to be comprised of DSP and mixed-signal electronics as they evolve towards 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps," Alain Couder, president and CEO of Oclaro, was quoted as saying in a press statement released today. "Through our investment and alliance with ClariPhy, Oclaro believes it will be able to offer its customers best-in-class electronics and optical technology as a complete solution from a single source, whether incorporated directly in our Oclaro solutions, or co-marketed as complementary products."

Oclaro and ClariPhy have partnered previously. Oclaro's TL9000M 10G small form factor 300-pin transponder leveraged ClariPhy's maximum likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE) IC to provide extended reach. Oclaro plans to continue work in this vein, targeting tunable XFP and XFP+ modules using ClariPhy's MLSE IC.

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