Texas Instruments announces fully integrated multi-rate SONET OC-48 transceiver

Jan. 18, 2001

A fully integrated, multi-rate, low-power CMOS transmitter/receiver solution for SONET/SDH optical modules with transmission rates up to OC-48 is now available from Texas Instruments Incorporated.

A fully integrated, multi-rate, low-power CMOS transmitter/receiver solution for SONET/SDH optical modules with transmission rates up to OC-48 is now available from Texas Instruments (TI) Incorporated (NYSE: TXN). TI's new high-speed transceiver solution reduces space and cuts power consumption in half over comparable, less-integrated devices, as well as reduces costs, improves reliability and speeds time to market for manufacturers of the optical modules used in SONET/SDH and optical networking equipment.

The new SLK2501 multi-rate SONET/SDH transceiver supports bi-directional OC-48, -24, -12 and -3 transmission, as well as integrates the multiplexing and demultiplexing (mux/demux), clock/data recovery (CDR) and clock generation functions used in optical modules. The CMOS process on which the SLK2501 is based provides excellent operating characteristics that meet or exceed SONET/SDH jitter requirements. The process also reduces power consumption to 650 milliwatts (mW) during OC-48 operation. Unlike solutions based on non- CMOS processes, the SLK2501 is characterized for the industrial temperature range of -40 to 85 degrees C and requires no special cooling arrangements.

Operating from a single 2.5-volt supply, the SLK2501 is built for ease and versatility of design. A high-speed low-voltage pseudoemitter-coupled logic (LV-PECL) serial interface on the fiber side and a 4-bit low-voltage differential signal (LVDS) interface (OIF1999.102USFI-4 compliant) on the host side facilitate system design. Dual reference clock support at 155 and 625 MHz and autorate detection for data transmission provide application flexibility. Testability features such as on-chip pseudorandom bit stream (PRBS) generation and verification and parity checking and generation for the LVDS interface serve to enhance system reliability.

In addition to optical modules for SONET/SDH and optical networking, applications for the SLK2501 include add-drop multiplexers (ADMs) and optical ADMs, optical switches, digital cross-connects, terminal multiplexers, dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) equipment and proprietary optical links.

TI's SLK2501 transceiver is sampling now, with volume production scheduled for the first quarter of 2001. To aid in design, an evaluation module (EVM) is also now available. The device is packaged in a low-profile 100-pin very thin quad flatpack (VQFP) with PowerPad for thermal performance. Planned pricing in volume is $140 per unit in quantities of 1,000 units.

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