TriQuint introduces surface-mount optical modulator driver with low power dissipation
29 April 2003 Hillsboro, OR Lightwave--TriQuint Semiconductor announced the TGA4953 optical modulator driver for high-speed optical networking applications. The TGA4953 is the latest in a series of low power dissipation (1W) surface-mount modulator drivers.
The TGA4953 is a multi-chip module consisting of two high performance wideband amplifiers including off-chip bias circuitry assembled in a compact (.350x.450x.080 inch) surface-mount land grid array package. A single TGA4953 placed between the multiplexer and optical modulator provides OEMs with a board level, surface mount modulator driver solution that is easily integrated onto system line cards or modules using standard production assembly processes. The TGA4953 is an excellent choice for bit rates up to 11.2 Gbits/sec for optical non-return-to-zero applications including metro multi-rate transponder applications. In addition, the TGA4953 is suitable for a variety of other optical Mach Zehnder (MZ) driver applications including Optical Duobinary.
The TGA4953 delivers superb data eye quality (Q factor near 50, rail ripple near 1%) and extremely low jitter when driven by typical output signals from any of a variety of low cost silicon MUXs. This feature enables metro designers to incorporate small form-factor MZ modulators (which are more sensitive to driver data eye quality) and low cost Silicon multiplexers into metro DWDM networks. With the TGA4953, optical MZ modulators can now be deployed deep within the metropolitan network, delivering best in class, unfiltered optical data previously available only in high-end long haul systems.
The TGA4953 provides metro and long-haul designers with system critical features such as: low DC power consumption (1.1W at Vo=6V), very low rail ripple (1% typical), high voltage drive capability at +5V bias (6V amplitude adjustable to 3V), wide crossing control (+/-15%), low additive jitter (0.5 ps rms typical), and low input drive sensitivity (250mV at Vo=6V).
The TGA4953 is shipping in pre-production volumes, ramping to full volume production in the second quarter of 2003.
This new driver/amplifier is part of a series of product introductions specifically targeting the need for high-performance, physical media dependant, integrated devices for the OC-192/STM-64 and OC-768/STM-256 telecom/datacom infrastructure build-out. The technology behind the standard product family has evolved through years of research and development and custom product designs in the high performance telecom IC market.