DECEMBER 21, 2010 -- GigOptix, Inc. (OTCBB: GGOX) says that its LX8401 40-Gbps Thin Film Polymer on Silicon (TFPS) Mach-Zehnder modulator has shown spurious free dynamic range (SFDR) and third order inter-modulation (IM3) performance of up to 108 dB SFDR as measured by Linear Photonics, LLC. The results indicate that the technology should be applicable to even higher speed applications, including 400 Gbps and 1 Tbps.
GigOptix began sampling its 40G TFPS modulators earlier this year (see "GigOptix announces first commercial samples of 40G electro-optical polymer modulators to major telecom OEMs").
"We are very pleased with the excellent results of our GigOptix proprietary TFPS modulator that demonstrate industry-leading linearity figures as measured by Linear Photonics, an acknowledged leader in the field," commented Dr. Raluca Dinu, GigOptix's vice president and general manager of GigOptix-Bothell. "Coupled with the TFPS technology's low drive voltages and broad bandwidths, we believe that GigOptix's TFPS modulators now offer the industry a clear path to next-generation optical communication systems, such as quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) based modulation schemes."
Linearity will be a key enabler of 400-Gbps and 1-Tbps optical telecommunication systems, particularly those based on QAM schemes, GigOptix asserts. The highly linear performance of the TFPS-enabled modulator bodes well for the technology’s use in these applications, GigOptix believes.
"The GigOptix LX8401 optical modulator performed exceedingly well in our linearity measurements," confirmed John MacDonald, Linear Photonics' vice president and general manager. "Linear Photonics has a long history in developing and manufacturing high frequency analog fiber-optic equipment, and we have stringent requirements on device linearity performance. We are very excited about using GigOptix's devices in our next generation high performance solutions."
GigOptix has posted a new whitepaper on its site describing the performance results.