OIF membership has approved the Integrated Coherent Transmitter-Receiver Optical Subassembly (IC-TROSA) Implementation Agreement (IA). The IA describes two types of IC-TROSA, each of which is expected to accelerate the development of 400-Gbps coherent optical modules, including those based on the 400ZR IA, in pluggable form factors such as QSFP-DD and OSFP.
The IC-TROSA subassembly supports high-bandwidth and high-order QPSK, 8QAM, and 16QAM, at symbol rates up to 64Gbaud. Devices constructed to the IA should enable data transmission up to 600 Gbps for applications ranging from data center interconnect and metro to long-haul.
“The IC-TROSA project took an aggressive approach to coherent optical component integration and has delivered two new package designs incorporating TX and RX integration, common digital controls and performance monitoring all in a small form factor package,” explained Scott Grindstaff, director R&D, ADVA, and IC-TROSA IA Technical Editor. “Additionally, package specific features such as fiber-free interface and solder reflow compatibility have been incorporated.”
The IC-TROSA Type-1 uses a surface-mount package with a ball grid array (BGA) electrical interface optimized for silicon photonics designs that don’t require a laser. The IC-TROSA Type-2 is optimized for InP-based applications and uses a gold-box package with flex-cable electrical interface. Type-2 includes an integrated tunable laser and a duplex LC optical connector.
“The IC-TROSA IA is a solution for density requirements for line cards, front-pluggable and future on-board coherent 400G+ optical modules,” said Karl Gass, OIF PLL Working Group, Optical Vice Chair. “It aims to standardize a photonic package for coherent applications that is easy to use while leaving the internal implementation to the vendor.”
At the show, OIF planned to show examples of both types. A Type-1 device with an ADVA logo on it made it to the event, but a Type-2 device from Finisar (now II-VI) was delayed in transit, Gass explained. He said he expects to see 400ZR modules using the IC-TROSA to appear in the next quarter or so.
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