Sierra Monolithics releases low-power 40G mux and demux in SMT packaging

SEPTEMBER 9, 2009 -- Sierra Monolithics, a supplier of ICs and modules for high-speed analog and RF applications, has extended its family of 40G serializer/deserializer (SerDes) components with the SMI4029 multiplexer with clock multiplier unit (CMU) and SMI4039 demultiplexer with clock and data recovery (CDR). The company says its devices are the first 40G differential quadrature phase-shift keying (DQPSK) units to be packaged in low-cost, small-form-factor surface-mount technology (SMT).

Sierra Monolithics' mux and demux devices deliver data rates from 39.8 to 44.6Gbps and incorporate on-chip, user-enabled DQPSK precoding to add resilience to impairments encountered in older fiber and optical add/drop multiplexers (OADMs) in backbone and metro/regional networks. The devices are fabricated in IBM's 8HP silicon germanium (SiGe) bipolar complementary metal oxide semiconductor (BiCMOS) process technology to reduce power consumption, and they use compact SMT to eliminate the cost and complexity of alternative large metal packages with microwave connectors. Their SMT ball-grid array (BGA) packaging will enable transponders to be developed at a lower cost with smaller footprints, says Sierra Monolithics.

The devices have been proven interoperable with Inphi's 2811DZ modulator driver (see "Inphi, Sierra Monolithics demo 40G chip interoperability").

"At half the power consumption of our previous-generation 40G DQPSK SerDes devices, the SMI4029 and SMI4039 solutions deliver breakthrough power efficiency, high performance, and superior resiliency in a package that will enable rapid commercial deployment of significantly smaller, lower-cost 40G transponders," says Craig Hornbuckle, vice president of systems engineering, Sierra Monolithics. "The inclusion of DQPSK modulation precoding circuitry is an important step for next-generation 40G optical transport systems in long-reach applications and networks with older fiber, and will help ensure that carriers can achieve the system performance and reliability they need to manage explosive growth in network bandwidth consumption over the existing fiber infrastructure."

The company's 40G SMI4029 and SMI4039 devices are available in sample quantities now and scheduled to enter volume production in the 4Q09. They are packaged in a full surface-mount BGA package.


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