NeoPhotonics demos 90-km 400ZR reach on 75-GHz DWDM channels

June 18, 2020

The demonstration leveraged the company’s 400ZR pluggable modules as well as its athermal arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) multiplexers and de-multiplexers.

Stephen Hardy

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NeoPhotonics Corp. (NYSE: NPTN) says it has demonstrated the ability to support 90-km 400ZR transmission on a 75-GHz DWDM channel grid. The demonstration leveraged the company’s 400ZR pluggable modules (see, for example, "NeoPhotonics sampling 400ZR ClearLight OSFP coherent optical transceivers for data center interconnect" and "NeoPhotonics ships 400G ClearLight CFP2-DCO coherent optical transceiver") as well as its athermal arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) multiplexers and de-multiplexers. The ability to squeeze multiple channels of 400ZR transmission onto a 75-GHz grid enables per-fiber capacity to stretch to 25.6 Tbps s (400 Gbps/channel x 64 channels), NeoPhotonics points out.

The AWG mux/demux devices leveraged filters designed to minimize adjacent channel interference (ACI), which can be a problem in such scenarios due to thermally induced shifts in the center wavelengths of the lasers involved as well as typical mux/demux devices. The optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) penalty due to the mux/demux devices and the worst-case frequency drifts of the lasers, as well as the mux and demux filters, is less than 1 dB, says NeoPhotoincs. The worst-case component frequency drifts were applied in the demonstration to emulate operating conditions for aging and extreme temperatures.

“The combination of compact 400ZR silicon photonics-based pluggable coherent transceiver modules with specially designed 75-GHz channel spaced multiplexers and de-multiplexers can greatly increase the bandwidth capacity of optical fibers in a DCI application and consequently greatly decrease the cost per bit,” commented Tim Jenks, chairman and CEO of NeoPhotonics. “These 400ZR coherent techniques pack 400-Gbps of data into a 75-GHz-wide spectral channel, placing stringent requirements on the multiplexers and de-multiplexers. We are uniquely able to meet these requirements because we do both design and fabrication of planar lightwave circuits and we have 20 years of experience addressing the most challenging mux/demux applications.”

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About the Author

Stephen Hardy | Editorial Director and Associate Publisher, Lightwave

Stephen Hardy is editorial director and associate publisher of Lightwave and Broadband Technology Report, part of the Lighting & Technology Group at Endeavor Business Media. Stephen is responsible for establishing and executing editorial strategy across the both brands’ websites, email newsletters, events, and other information products. He has covered the fiber-optics space for more than 20 years, and communications and technology for more than 35 years. During his tenure, Lightwave has received awards from Folio: and the American Society of Business Press Editors (ASBPE) for editorial excellence. Prior to joining Lightwave in 1997, Stephen worked for Telecommunications magazine and the Journal of Electronic Defense.

Stephen has moderated panels at numerous events, including the Optica Executive Forum, ECOC, and SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. He also is program director for the Lightwave Innovation Reviews and the Diamond Technology Reviews.

He has written numerous articles in all aspects of optical communications and fiber-optic networks, including fiber to the home (FTTH), PON, optical components, DWDM, fiber cables, packet optical transport, optical transceivers, lasers, fiber optic testing, and more.

You can connect with Stephen on LinkedIn as well as Twitter.