Gigabit transceiver
Zonu Inc has introduced a low-cost Gigabit Ethernet single-fibre transceiver for switches and routers in 10km links, hardened to operate over an extended temperature range for carrier-class transport for next-generation access systems.
The Multi Source Agreement-compliant Small Form Pluggable (SFP) modules include a built-in LED indicator which provides immediate link status to enable easy installation and preliminary verification of fibre plant operation.
An Automatic Laser Power Control circuit maintains the optical power and extinction ratio over the entire temperature range.
www.zonu.com
OSA module
EXFO's IQS-5250B optical spectrum analyser (OSA) is a module within the new IQS Cortex platform for characterising components and sub-systems in narrowly spaced DWDM.
Long-term wavelength uncertainty is ±30pm due to a new auto-calibration function with an internal reference source.
A resolution bandwidth of 33pm makes it suitable for R&D. Its dynamic range of 45dBc at 25GHz is ideal for measuring the noise and sidebands of DWDM channels.www.exfo.comUncooled 40km 10GbE transceiver
At March's OFC 2002 exhibition Agere Systems demonstrated the first uncooled XENPAK-compliant 10 Gigabit Ethernet transceiver to transmit up to 40km (available in Q3/2002, with production quantities in Q4/2002). This is four times the reach of standard uncooled devices and matches that of 1550nm cooled transmitters.
The AE20MRCAA 1310nm serial transceiver uses the same platform as its 10km serial 10GbE transceiver.
Low power consumption of 5.5W (and <4.5W by the time of volume production) can improve component reliability, system airflow and board density.
www.agere.com
High-speed multimode fibre and cables
Corning Cable Systems has announced its high-speed cables, FREEDM, MIC, and MIC Interlocking Armoured and interconnect, which use Corning InfiniCor SX+ 10 Gigabit Ethernet-capable 50µm multimode fibre. The cables are designed for use in 850nm LED- or VCSEL-based private networks to provide an upgrade path to conquer bandwidth-intensive operations such as streaming audio and video and medical imaging. Also, the cables support 10Gbit/s serial transmission up to 300m and reach speeds previously only achieved by standard single-mode fibre
Corning Cable Systems encourages 50/125µm for new builds in riser backbones, the horizontal and data centres. The high bandwidth accommodates longer distance capability and more budget margin compared to 62.5/125µm fibre.
The fibre has been adopted into TIA/EIA-568-B.3 for structured cabling and connectivity standards such as Ethernet and Fibre Channel. www.corning.com/cablesystemsAutomated fibre manufacturing test
NetTest has launched the modular 1200 Automated Fibre Handler - the first comprehensive fibre preparation solution - which automates time-consuming fibre stripping, cleaning, cleaving and temporary coupling.
Modes include manual deployment where fibre ends are introduced by hand, semi-automated operation where manually loaded fibre spools are mechanically shuttled into place, and full test automation.
www.nettest.com
InP 40Gbit/s optical front-ends
Opto Speed is sampling the HRX40 OFE family of optical front-ends (OFEs) for RZ and NRZ applications at bit rates exceeding 40Gbit/s, including OC-768 and SDH ST-256. The single-die solution integrates an InGaAs PIN photodiode and high-speed InP TIA/postamplifier electronics.
The OFEs have differential outputs and bandwidths exceeding 35GHz as well as optical/electrical conversion gains up to 800V/W (single-ended). Other features include internal threshold control and outputs for offset compensation.
Available as bare dies and fully packaged small-size modules including coplanar ceramic feed-throughs and SMF fibre pig-tails.
www.optospeed.com.
Cladding mode suppression fibre
StockerYale has introduced cladding mode suppression fibre for fibre Bragg grating manufacture.
The grating is written into the core and the cladding, eliminating loss peaks in the transmission spectrum at wavelengths below the main reflection peak. This enables DWDM applications that require a broader spectral bandwidth.
The photosensitivity of both core and inner cladding increases grating diameter, which results in almost total suppression of the coupling between core and cladding modes.
The fibre is photosensitive to UV, so it does not need hydrogenation for writing deep gratings. The numerical aperture and mode field diameter allows for low splice loss to standard single-mode fibre.
www.stockeryale.com
Enhanced multi-wavelength meter
Agilent Technologies' 86122A multi-wavelength meter features an enhanced graphical display for simultaneous and fast qualitative signal analysis of up to 1,000 channels, automated data collection, and easy-to-use data analysis.
There are two options:
- standard - with an absolute wavelength accuracy of ±0.5ppm (±0.75pm at 1550nm);
- high-accuracy - providing ±0.2ppm (±0.3pm at 1550nm).
First erbium micro fibre amplifiers
The first miniaturised fibre-based amplifiers use the Erbium Micro-Fibre Amplifier (EMFA) technology of NP Photonics pumped with the Telcordia-compliant semiconductor laser diodes of Spectra-Physics.
A proprietary erbium-doped glass produces high optical gain over just a few centimetres of fibre.
- The initial products are: The Scorpion Gainlet MMP-7010 gain block couples an EMFA gain fibre to a pump laser. It delivers customisable gain over the entire C band and is a building block for channel and band amplification, as well as integration into DWDM components as loss compensators.
- The Scorpion Amplet MMP-7012 turnkey amplifier system integrates passive components, drive electronics and control software, including feedback control electronics incorporating photodiode monitoring, isolation and optional gain flattening filters. 15dB of gain over the C band offers similar functionality to EDFAs for metro and access.
www.npphotonics.com
10Gbit/s surface mounted receivers
Agere Systems is sampling the first 10Gbit/s surface-mount optical receivers based on a multi-source agreement (MSA) standard announced by Agere and Nortel Networks.
A 17-pin "butterfly" surface-mount package and differential RF output make them less bulky than coax-output receivers and easier to assemble on a board. Mounting directly to the surface of a line card without coring a hole through the board saves real estate and manufacturing time.
The RA194W avalanche photodiode (APD) - for ultra-long-haul, long-haul and metro-based multi-channel DWDM and TDM systems - has -26dBm sensitivity and -2dBm overload, increasing reach between spans.
The R194T PIN - for short - and intermediate-reach single-channel TDM - is optimised with a high-gain differential output (6,000W typical) transimpedance amplifier with very low power dissipation (0.15W), so it can be directly connected to clock and data recovery electronics without a discrete limiting amplifier.
www.agere.com
Parallel interconnect modules
Thales "D-Light" family of parallel optical interconnect modules for short-distance datacoms comprises 4-, 8- and 12-channel transmitter and receiver modules operating at up to 2.5Gbit/s per channel.
The design of the modules ensures low power consumption (less than 1.2W for a complete 8-channel link at 1.25Gbit/s) and small size (16mm x16mm x4mm).
Based on 850nm VCSELs and PIN photodiodes, the module is suitable for board-to-board and intra-cabinet communications. www.thalesgroup.comSmall-form-factor 10Gbit/s transponder subsystem
CENiX Inc is sampling its UNiPAK-10 10Gbit/s Small Form Factor family of transponders, for volume production in July.
The 300-pin MSA-compliant product features a smaller 3.0x 2.2x0.5in footprint and multi-rate capability that supports SONET, 10GbE and forward error correction data rates, addressing both TDM and DWDM applications up to 60km. It also extends operating temperature from -5°C to 75°C and reduces power consumption from 8.5-6W.
The transponders include a 1.55µm EML laser, a high-sensitivity PIN or APD receiver, a 16-channel Serialiser/Deserialiser, and 100GHz DWDM channel spacing.
www.cenix.com
40Gbit/s parallel interconnect for VSR
Building on its existing 15 and 30Gbit/s products, EMCORE Corp has launched 12x3.3Gbit/s parallel array 850nm MTX8521 transmitter and MRX8521 receiver modules.
Throughput over multimode fibre ribbon cable is sufficient for the Optical Internetworking Forum's VSR5 Parallel SONET OC-768 very short reach transponder standard, to replace serial interconnects. Power consumption is typically just 2W.
Short-haul applications include high-speed logic-logic data links, optical backplanes, ganged serial connections (12 x OC-48) and board-to-board and shelf-to-shelf high-speed interconnects.
Pluggable electrical configuration, consisting of a 100-pin matrix array electrical connector on its underside, eliminates the need for special handling for insertion onto circuit boards. www.emcore.comExternal multi-wavelength locker package
Tunable Photonics has launched its TrueLock external wavelength locker. It offers multi-wavelength locking in an industry-standard package, enabling upgrade without changing wavelength locker profile aboard the line card.
Insensitivity to temperature provides an absolute wavelength reference, eliminates adjustment of the lockpoint by temperature or laser frequency. accuracy of (±1.0GHz, 8 pm) with the same part number reduces inventory holding costs, and boosts system accuracy performance. with standard form and fit for 25, 50 and 100GHz FSR models.
Temperature monitoring and heating of the temperature-controlled etalon enables superior locker accuracy and stability, regardless of ambient temperature changes. temperature compensation, typically performed by the laser control software, is replaced with temperature monitoring and adjustment control loop.
www.tunablephotonics.com
Large-aperture VCSEL for 10Gbit/s VSR
Zarlink Semiconductor has demonstrated a large-aperture 850nm VCSEL for multi-gigabit Very Short Reach optical interconnects.
Large aperture and hence higher photon density give higher bandwidth, higher modulation efficiency, and lower noise. Correspondingly lower current density leads to greater reliability and longer life-span.
Zarlink altered the structure to introduce losses for higher-order lateral modes (which degrade signal integrity) and decrease power penalty.
In lab tests, the 12mm-aperture VCSEL achieved 10Gbit/s transmission with a power penalty of only 0.5dB (below the 4.7dB limit of the IEEE 802.3ae standard for 10 Gigabit Ethernet) at 80°C over 300m of high bandwidth LaserWave Fibre from OFS. It thus provides a 4.2dB margin in the optical link.
www.zarlink.com
Qualification for storage
ADVA Optical Networking has launched the ADVAntage Qualification Program (AQP).
AQP provides interoperability, system assurance and technical support to enable selection and implementation of multi-vendor storage networking solutions over a common optical infrastructure with the Fibre Service Platform (FSP) family of products.
The programme is designed to facilitate the adoption of business continuance storage applications on a scalable optical transport network.
AQP helps assure carriers that they can meet enterprise end-user network reliability and scale requirements on an on-going basis.
www.advaoptical.com
SOA and LOA burn-in stations
Racal Instruments has introduced semiconductor optical amplifier and linear optical amplifier burn-in stations in a drawer-based, dual-output configuration in butterfly packages incorporating the ButterflyNet.
The burn-in stations measure relative optical power while providing LIV measurements, individual base-plate temperature control, TEC voltage and current, as well as device current, voltage, and thermistor temperature.
They operate in both ACC and APC mode, with up to 5A drive current and 3.5V compliance voltage per device under test. Temperature range is 20-85°C, accuracy ±0.1°C, and stability ±0.25°C.
www.racalinstruments.com
Point-to-multipoint controller
BroadLight Inc has launched the XN232 low-cost Point-to-Multi-Point communication controller for mass Fibre-to-the-Home deployment.
The XN232/G addresses full services including voice, video, and data. It supports rates up to 1.25Gbit/s downstream and 155Mbit/s upstream. System functionalities include; CDR, SERDES, Framing, Media Access, a TDMA controller, Cell & Packet transmission, a GMII/MII or Utopia interface, and out-of-band management.
The XN232/G supports a unique feature for on-the-fly digital MPEG channels selection, which reduces the need for multicast functionality at the OLT and enables use of a low-cost concentrator to distribute the entire digital channel down to the ONT. www.broadlight.comFully digital optical jitter measurement
The Tektronix OTS9200 optical jitter analysis module uses high-speed silicon-germanium chip technology and digital phase analysis (DPA) for optical jitter testing to verify compliance with standards from OC-3/STM-1 (155Mbit/s) to OC-192/STM-64 (10Gbit/s).
The OTS9200 time stamps every edge of a SONET/SDH data stream and removes the inherent error sources and variables associated with phase lock loop (PLL) circuitry in analogue alternatives while reducing test time and complexity. The OTS9200 performs both jitter generation and tolerance tests.
www.tektronix.com
Three-wavelength option for new mini-OTDR module
Agilent Technologies has introduced fast testing capabilities for up to three wavelengths for its E6000C Mini-OTDR series.
The E6103A module offers an additional measurement at 1625nm, shortening installation and maintenance cycles by more than 30%. Measurement at 1625nm also aids recognition and location of fibre bends that could lead to link failures, reducing the potential for costly problems through not identifying weak spots during initial test.
The E6103A module allows test at 1310nm, 1550nm and 1625nm with one device from one connection for time-saving tasks like simultaneous testing of fibres in the O, C and L bands. www.agilent.com/comms/otdrAutomatic defect detection
Prior Scientific has introduced the ConnCert automatic defect detection system to detect, measure and classify defects as small as 0.3µm on the surface of fibre connectors.
High-quality optics and an LED-based illumination system give consistently high results. An automatic focusing mechanism ensures measurement accuracy.
www.prior.com
Multi-channel back-reflection meters
For its RX3 series multi-channel back-reflection meters JDS Uniphase has announced the following new features:
- Three-wavelength testing - a third internal laser allows cable connector and passive component manufacturers to measure wider wavelength ranges. The meter measures seven different output sources: 850 and 1310nm multi-mode and 1310, 1480, 1550, 1625 and 1650nm single-mode.
- A 10mm InGaAs detector, which measures high-count 24-channel ribbon cables. This adds increased span of power detection but retains its capability for measuring low back-reflection.
www.ageo.co.uk.
OTDR for multimode fibre
At OFC 2002, Anritsu launched the MW9076J and MW9076K optical time domain reflectometers (OTDRs) for characterising 62.5/125mm and 50/125mm multimode fibre for 850nm and switched 850/1300nm wavelengths, respectively.
They feature a short event (or reflective) dead zone of typically 1.5m at 850nm (with a reflectance of 45dB) for extremely close connections and an easy-to-change connector-type adapter for analysing fibre in short-haul applications.
EAM laser with integrated locker
As well as a monolithically integrated laser modulator chip, Alcatel Optronics' 1945 LMM electro-absorption modulator laser integrates a wavelength locking function (via an air-gap Fabry-Perot filter and two photodiodes) to accurately control optical power and emitted wavelength into the fibre (+/-1.25GHz at 0-70°C) for narrowing channel spacing in 10Gbit/s DWDM metro networks.
The 1945 covers the C band, has an optical power output of up to 3dBm and supports transmission up to 80km on standard fibre. Available in a standard 7-pin butterfly package with GPO or K connector.
Integration also offers a reduction of space and optical connectors on electro-optical boards.
www.alcatel.com/optronics