Home

German researchers characterize 980-nm VCSELs with Discovery Semiconductors' receivers

Oct. 23, 2006

OCTOBER 23, 2006 -- Discovery Semiconductors has provided 25-GHz multimode photodiodes to the Technical University of Berlin for their research on directly modulated 980-nm lasers.

OCTOBER 23, 2006 -- Discovery Semiconductors (search for Discovery Semiconductors) has provided 25-GHz multimode photodiodes to the Technical University of Berlin for their research on directly modulated 980-nm lasers.

Prof. D. Bimberg, with the Technical University of Berlin, led a collaborative group of researchers from the Center for Nano Photonics, Nanosemiconductor GmbH in Dortmund, as well as that of Fraunhofer Institute HHI in Berlin. They recently reported the development of directly modulated, sub-monolayer grown quantum dot VCSELs (search for VCSELs) at 980 nm for 20-Gbit/sec error-free operation at 85°C. The lasers were characterized and tested using a Discovery DSC30S multimode, 25-GHz photodiode coupled to a 62.5-micron graded-index multimode fiber.

Prof. Bimberg said, "Next-generation short-distance optical networks like chip-to-chip or backplane applications require temperature-robust ultra-high bit rate sources. Our final goal is a 1-Tbit/sec VCSEL array fitting the terabus demands of IBM, Intel, Cisco, etc. We were able to characterize the high-speed performance of the multimode laser without the detector compromising the results."

Roy Howard, the applications engineer at Discovery who witnessed the development of the multimode high-speed photodiodes over the last 6 years said, "The ease of optically interfacing the large-aperture fibers into an experiment as well as the broad wavelength coverage of our photodiodes have opened up a number of new applications for high-bit-rate multimode devices. The development of directly modulated VCSEL lasers at 980 nm is an important milestone on the road to 20- and 40-Gbit/sec multimode transmission."

Howard went on to add that Discovery is seeing a marked increase in business for multimode fibered optical receivers at data rates above 10 Gbits/sec. He said that the need for technology for 100-Gbit/sec Ethernet is one of the major drivers for this growth.

Visit Discovery Semiconductors