July 25, 2006 Camarillo, CA -- Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. has introduced the GPON PRO family of physical media dependent (PMD) devices, including the industry's first GPON OLT burst-mode receiver offering.
The new product family includes the VSC7718 GPON OLT Burst Mode Transimpedance Amplifier (TIA), VSC7728 GPON OLT Burst Mode Post Amplifier, VSC7970 GPON ONU Continuous Mode TIA, and the VSC7967 GPON ONU Integrated Burst Mode Laser Driver and Continuous Mode Post Amplifier. The new chipset is intended to offer designers a complete PMD IC chipset to enable BPON, EPON, and GPON networks with measured performance that exceeds published specifications for those standards. The company says it is also offering "a very competitive bundled pricing option."
Vitesse says the VSC7718 TIA and VSC7728 Post Amplifier, designed to be used in conjunction with one another, form a complete receiver solution for GPON and EPON OLT applications, including addressing burst-mode receiver issues. GPON equipment designers in particular have struggled to meet burst-mode specifications using off-the-shelf devices. Vitesse claims the VSC7718 and VSC7728 GPON PRO OLT receiver chipset exceeds all of the target specifications with better than ¿33-dBm sensitivity and overload performance of better than ¿4 dBm. The chipset also provides over 23 dBm of dynamic range.
"We have worked closely with Vitesse throughout the development of the VSC7718 and VSC7728. These devices together form the industry's only GPON OLT receiver solution that fully meets our requirements, and we are very encouraged by the initial performance results as well as by the overall device functionality which simplifies the transceiver design and the interface between the transceiver and the GPON protocol device," stated Oren Marmur, CTO at GPON equipment vendor FlexLight Networks. "We look forward to working with Vitesse over the next few months as we fully characterize this solution and deploy it into the field."
Meanwhile, the VSC7970 TIA and VSC7967 Integrated Burst Mode Laser Driver and Post Amplifier address the ONU. Vitesse claims that lab measurements show that the VSC7970, which has been in production for more than three years, has the largest dynamic range of any competitive TIA used in combination with an APD receiver. With a sensitivity of better than ¿33 dBm and overload of more than 0 dBm, the VSC7970 has been shown to continue operating even after the APD fails in an overload condition.
The VSC7967 is a second-generation integrated laser driver and post amplifier device for GPON applications. Based on the VSC7965 BPON/EPON integrated burst mode laser driver and post amplifier announced in March of 2005 (a LIGHTWAVE Attendees' Choice Awards Winner during OFC/NFOEC 2005), the software-managed architecture of the VSC7967 supports the digital diagnostics requirements of GPON and provides the flexibility of adding customer-specific features.
"Where BPON deployment has reached maturity we see GPON being adopted by the industry for next generation systems as well as for greenfield implementations," said Matthew Dru, product marketing manager at Vitesse. "Vitesse has developed the GPON PRO chipset to enable the adoption of GPON and in particular, to solve the GPON OLT burst mode receiver requirements along with enabling a cost-effective ONU/ONT solution."
The VSC7967 is in initial production with the VSC7970 in mature volume shipments. The VSC7718 and VSC7728 are sampling now to strategic customers with general availability coming later this year. Complete evaluation boards and reference designs with schematic, layout, and BOM are available now.