CoherentPIC Archives - EFFECT Photonics

Press Releases

December 15, 2021

Meet the team behind the EFFECT Photonics & Aston University partnership to bring greater bandwidth to a greener future

The optical transceiver market is expected to double in size by 2025, and coherent optical…

The optical transceiver market is expected to double in size by 2025, and coherent optical technology has come a long way over the past decade to become more accessible and thus have a greater impact on this market. When Nortel (later Ciena) introduced the first commercial coherent transponder in 2008, the device was a bulky, expensive line card with discrete components distributed on multiple circuit boards.

Recently, EFFECT Photonics and Aston University announced that they would collaborate as part of the newly formed Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Highly Integrated Coherent Optical Fibre Communications.

To learn more about this industry/academic partnership, we interviewed the three lead researchers in this project: Prof. Wladek Forysiak, Dr. Ian Phillips, and Dr. Stylianos Sygletos.

Tell us a little more about yourself and the team

Wladek: My background goes back almost to the start of the Aston Institute of Photonics Technology (AIPT). AIPT was formed by a couple of guys who came out of British Telecom and what was then part of the GEC Telecom Company. The institute has deep industrial roots, and hence the people who work at AIPT often like to participate in projects close to the industry with relatively short timescales. I joined the institute as a post-doc and then subsequently became an academic staff member.

Around 2000, I left alongside five others for a “virtual startup” with the Marconi company, and we formed an entity called Marconi Solstis. At that time, we developed a record-breaking terrestrial ultra long haul system, and we installed our first system in Australia, linking the cities of Perth and Adelaide. Marconi then morphed into Ericsson, and I stayed there for another six to seven years.

In 2010, I moved to Oclaro (now Lumentum), which does somewhat similar technology to what’s being developed by EFFECT Photonics on their integrated indium phosphide platform. I spent three or four years there before returning to academic life at Aston. As for the team, we have funding for three full-time Ph.D. students we’re currently working to recruit. They will be the cement, the foundation of our project.

Ian: I’m of a similar background to Wladek. My expertise is in transceivers, especially characterization and design. I completed my Ph.D. at Aston in 1997 in optical signal processing. British Telecom (BT) sponsored the project, and I worked there for a year after my Ph.D. Corning subsequently purchased the BT Photonics Lab in 2000, and I stayed there for another year. Afterward, I moved to Marconi Solstis with Wladek and stayed there until 2010, when Ericsson closed the site. I then worked in Italy for two years, transferring some system knowledge to the Ericsson research group there, and finally, I joined Aston in 2012.

Stylianos: I completed my Ph.D. at the National Technical University of Athens in 2006, focusing on the physical layer modeling of optical communication systems. I worked for a year at Athens Information Technology (i.e., a research center of Intracom, the largest telecom system provider in Greece). Between 2007 and 2009, I moved for a post-doc position in the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, working with Juerg Leuthold to model quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifiers.

I then moved to the Tyndall National Institute in Ireland in 2009 to join the group of Andrew Ellis. I focused on the design and experimental implementation of phase-sensitive amplifiers and optical phase-locking solutions for these amplifiers.

After 2012, I joined AIPT as a research fellow, where my research interests eventually changed to digital signal processing and machine learning. I want to apply machine learning to the physical layer of optical communication systems. I’m now the director of two Master’s programs at Aston: the Smart Telecom and Sensing Networks (SMARTNET) and the Erasmus Mundus Photonic Integration and Networks (PIXNET), in collaboration with different universities in Europe and Japan.

What attracted you to collaborate with EFFECT Photonics?

Wladek: This project came about through a conversation between James (EFFECT Photonics’ CEO) and myself where he said, “Well, I’m interested in growing research activities to enhance our systems capability, and I have confidence in the experience of you and the Aston team”. So I said to him that one way to build a long-term relationship between a company and a university is through Ph.D. studentships.

AIPT is very much about doing applied research, and James was very much about the value of user-directed research that is close to the market and based on real-world situations. So he and I shared that vision around the partnership.

Another reason was, of course, that EFFECT Photonics has technology complementary to ours. EFFECT can be a source of advanced technology for us to build the best experiments that compete with the best in the world. Our competition is in the advanced labs of Japan, the US, and other areas in Europe, and having access to great components is key to matching their capabilities.

We also found attractive the ambition and drive of a startup company and its ability to make quick decisions. When I reached out to James with ideas, I could get an immediate yes or no answer, often on the call, for authorization.

Ian: James explained to us really well what EFFECT Photonics was doing, its ambitions, and how it aligned with our work. When we visited the facility in Brixham and were shown around the labs, it was all indicative of a company that wanted to get things done quickly, and hopefully, we can help them in that process.

Stylianos: On top of what Wladek already mentioned, it’s great to work with a startup that is more open to testing new technologies. I’m passionate about machine learning, and the prospect of applying machine learning algorithms to EFFECT Photonics’ novel technology platform is very exciting. I feel like there is an opportunity to make a big impact.

In what ways do the facilities of Aston University complement what EFFECT Photonics has?

Wladek: EFFECT Photonics develops advanced components that interest people like us working on optical communication systems and networks. We’re used to thinking about integrating these advanced components into our systems and getting the maximum capacity from point A to B.

We have a history of 30 years with optical fiber transmission, so we have all the necessary facilities for system modeling and testing. Stelios also brings to the party his expertise in DSP software, which is also critical to what EFFECT Photonics may do in the future.

Ian: We also see our job as training the Ph.D. students to pass on our knowledge of system design and how that reflects in EFFECT Photonics’ transceiver design. We want to train the students and get them to creatively and effectively use the components.

Stylianos: It depends on how the project goes, but we can even develop device models of EFFECT Photonics units and identify the device parameters that can meet network and system-level targets. We can even combine it with machine learning for extra optimization of those parameters.

What are some of the main challenges you hope to address?

Wladek: Looking for a greener future is a big challenge in optical comms. We’ve all witnessed it in the last couple of years with the pandemic. We need greater network capacity but also cheaper and greener. We cannot let that demand for capacity just be the same old technology since power consumption would go up and up and up.

The challenges are similar to what they’ve always been, in a way, but even more acute. And we need to do it all without really spending more money. Nobody wants to pay more for their comms at the end of the day.

We should also go in other directions to increase the capacity. For example, EFFECT Photonics’ current components are made for the optical C-band, but people in long-haul and other areas are looking at creating multiband components that can also operate in the L-band. We’ve also got projects currently looking at the S-band and shorter wavelengths. Researchers are also looking at different fibre structures to carry more and more signals.

At the same time, there’s an industry drive never to pay for more. Ultimately, that mindset has driven even more technical innovation. Capacity has gone up, but the price has gone down. It’s a relentless game, and everyone keeps saying there’s going to be a point at which we don’t need any more capacity, but if it’s there, we always find ways of using it.

Ian: One key challenge many companies are working on is increasing the baud rate, which is quite a technical problem. If you increase the baud rate, you increase the channel capacity too. It was stuck at around 28 GBaud for a long time, and now it’s going up 64 and even 100 GBaud.

Stylianos: I want to mention how important is network optimization to improve performance and reduce power consumption, which would lead to greener networks.

Network operators need to maintain large performance margins to secure a robust operation in different network conditions. In practice, however, these margins mean more power consumption. Ideally, you would like to reduce those margins by a more efficient design of your system and performance that can adapt to the different conditions. We can achieve these goals through machine learning.

This requires solutions for multi-objective optimization. For example, we are not just interested in designing the transmitter subsystem, but we want to see how transmitter performance is connected to network-level performance, as measured by throughput and power consumption. This is a complex problem that involves different layers of the system.

Takeaways

Moving towards a higher-capacity and greener future requires strong collaboration between academic and industrial partners with shared goals. EFFECT Photonics and Aston University share a vision around this greener future and the value of applied research.

This joint project will unite EFFECT Photonics’ component development expertise with Aston’s expertise in optical fiber transmission modeling, testing, and network optimization through machine learning. This union can enable faster, more affordable, and sustainable coherent products that give greater bandwidth to a greener future.

As Wladek mentioned in the interview, this joint project is looking for three PhD students to drive it forward, with the positions available to start in March, July, or October 2022. If you are interested in applying or know someone who might be interested, please visit the following link: https://jobs.aston.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx?ref=R210549 .

Tags: Aston University, bandwidth, coherent, coherent optics, CoherentPIC, digital signal processing, DWDM, Green Energy, optical network, photonic integration, Photonics, programmable optical system-on-chip, Royal Academy of Engineers, sustainability telecommunication energy efficency, Sustainable

Insights

October 12, 2021

Integrating Line Card Performance and Functions Into a Pluggable

Article first published 12th October 2021, updated 3rd July 2024. The optical transceiver market is…

Article first published 12^th October 2021, updated 3^rd July 2024.

The optical transceiver market is expected to double in size by 2025, and coherent optical technology has come a long way over the past decade to become more accessible and thus have a greater impact on this market. When Nortel (later Ciena) introduced the first commercial coherent transponder in 2008, the device was a bulky, expensive line card with discrete components distributed on multiple circuit boards.

As time went by, coherent devices got smaller and consumed less power. By 2018, most coherent line card transponder functions could be miniaturized into CFP2 transceiver modules that were the size of a pack of cards and could plug into modules with pluggable line sides. QSFP modules followed a couple of years later, and they were essentially the size of a large USB stick and could be plugged directly into routers. They were a great fit for network operators who wanted to take advantage of the lower power consumption and cost, field replaceability, vendor interoperability, and pay-as-you-grow features.

Figure-Module-Power — Figure 1: Coherent module size and power consumption evolution from OIF MSA line card modules to pluggable modules like CFP and QSFP.

Despite the onset of pluggables, the big, proprietary line card optical engines have still played a role in the market by focusing on delivering best-in-class optical performance. The low-noise, high-power signals they produce have the longest reach for optical links and have wider compatibility with the ROADM multiplexers used in metro and long-haul networks. The smaller CFP2 modules produce, at best, roughly half the laser power of the line card modules, which limits their reach. Meanwhile, even smaller QSFP form factors can not fit optical amplifier components, so their transmit power and reach are much more limited than even a CFP2 module.

All in all, the trade-offs were clear: go for proprietary line card transponders if you want best-in-class performance and longest reach, and go for CFP2 or QSFP transceivers if you want a smaller footprint and power consumption. This trade-off, however, limits the more widespread adoption of coherent technology. For example, mobile network operators need high performance, a smaller footprint, and power consumption so that their metro and access networks can meet the rising demands for 5G data.

So what if we told you the current paradigm of line card transponders versus pluggable transceivers is outdated? Recent improvements in electronic and photonic integration have squeezed more performance and functions into smaller form factors, allowing pluggable devices to almost catch up to line cards.

Integration Enables Line Card Performance in a Pluggable Form Factor

Figure 2: Comparing transmit power, noise, size, and cost of line card transponders and different transceiver pluggable modules. Fully integrated QSFP-DD modules include lasers, amplifiers, and filters inside a single PIC, so they can deliver high transmit powers at small size and low cost.

The advances in photonic integration change the game and can enable high performance and transmit power in the smallest pluggable transceiver form factors. By integrating all photonic functions on a single chip, including lasers and optical amplifiers, pluggable transceiver modules can achieve transmit power levels closer to those of line card transponder modules while still keeping the smaller QSFP router pluggable form factor, power consumption, and cost.

Full photonic integration increases the transmit power further by minimizing the optical losses due to the use of more efficient optical modulators, fewer coupling losses compared to silicon, and the integration of the laser device on the same chip as the rest of the optical components.

Modern ASICs Can Fit Electronics Functions in a Pluggable Form Factor

As important as optical performance is, though, pluggable transceivers also needed improvements on the electronic side. Traditionally, line card systems not only had better optical performance but also broader and more advanced electronic functionalities, such as digital signal processing (DSP), advanced forward error correction (FEC), encryption, and advanced modulation schemes. These features are usually implemented on electronic application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs).

ASICs benefit from the same CMOS process improvements that drive progress in consumer electronics. Each new CMOS process generation can fit more transistors into a single chip. Ten years ago, an ASIC for line cards had tens of millions of transistors, while the 7nm ASIC technology used in modern pluggables has more than five billion transistors. This progress in transistor density allows ASICs to integrate more electronic functions than ever into a single chip while still making the chip smaller. Previously, every function—signal processing, analog/digital conversion, error correction, multiplexing, encryption—required a separate ASIC, but now they can all be consolidated on a single chip that fits in a pluggable transceiver.

Figure : Evolution of coherent transceiver generations in terms of power consumption and transistor density of ASICs. — Figure 3: Evolution of coherent transceiver generations in terms of power consumption and transistor density of ASICs.

This increase in transistor density and integration also leads to massive gains in power consumption and performance. For example, modern transceivers using 7nm ASICs have decreased their consumption by 50% compared to the previous generation using 16nm ASICs while delivering roughly a 30% increase in bandwidth and baud rates. By 2022, ASICs in pluggables will benefit from a newer 5nm CMOS process, enabling further improvements in transistor density, power consumption, and speed.

Electronic Integration Enables Line-Card System Management in a Pluggable Form Factor

The advancements in CMOS technology also enable the integration of system-level functions into a pluggable transceiver. Previously, functions such as in-band network management and security, remote management, autotuneability, or topology awareness had to live on the shelf controller or in the line card interface, but that’s not the case anymore. Thanks to the advances in electronic integration, we are closer than ever to achieving a full, open transponder on a pluggable that operates as part of the optical network. These programmable, pluggable transceivers provide more flexibility than ever to manage access networks.

For example, the pluggable transceiver could run in a mode that prioritizes high-performance or one that prioritizes low consumption by using simpler and less power-hungry signal processing and error correction features. Therefore, these pluggables could provide high-end performance in the smallest form-factor or low and mid-range performance at lower power consumption than embedded line card transponders.

EFFECT Photonics has already started implementing these system-management features in its products. For example, our direct-detect SFP+ transceiver modules feature NarroWave technology, which allows customers to monitor and control remote SFP+ modules from the central office without making any hardware or software changes in the field. NarroWave is agnostic of vendor equipment, data rate, or protocol of the in-band traffic.

Pluggable transceivers also provide the flexibility of multi-vendor interoperability. High-performance line card transponders have often prioritized using proprietary features to increase performance while neglecting interoperability. The new generations of pluggables don’t need to make this trade-off: they can operate in standards-compatible modes for interoperability or in high-performance modes that use proprietary features.

Takeaways

Coherent technology was originally reserved for premium long-distance links where performance is everything. Edge and access networks could not use this higher-performance technology since it was too bulky and expensive.

Photonic integration technology like the one used by EFFECT Photonics helps bring these big, proprietary, and expensive line card systems into a router pluggable form factor. This tech has squeezed more performance into a smaller area and at lower power consumption, making the device more cost-effective. Combining the improvements in photonic integration with the advances in electronic integration for ASICs, the goal of having a fully programmable transponder in a pluggable is practically a reality. Photonic integration will be a disruptive technology that will simplify network design and operation and reduce network operators’ capital and operating expenses.

The impact of this technological improvement in pluggable transceivers was summarized deftly by Keven Wollenweber, VP of Product Management for Cisco’s Routing Portfolio:

“Technology advancements have reached a point where coherent pluggables match the QSFP-DD form factor of grey optics, enabling a change in the way our customers build networks. 100G edge and access optimized coherent pluggables will not only provide operational simplicity, but also scalability, making access networks more future proof.”

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Tags: 100G, access network, ASIC, CFP, coherent optics, CoherentPIC, DSP, edge network, electronic integration, fully integrated, Fully Integrated PICs, Integrated Photonics, line card, metro access, miniaturization, NarroWave, optical transceivers, photonic integration, PIC, pluggable, pluggable transceiver, QSFP, SFP, small form factor, sustainability telecommunication

Press Releases

October 8, 2021

EFFECT Photonics partners with Aston University to bring greater bandwidth to a greener future

EFFECT Photonics would like to congratulate Professor Wladek Forysiak from Aston University on his recently…

EFFECT Photonics would like to congratulate Professor Wladek Forysiak from Aston University on his recently announced appointment as the Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Highly Integrated Coherent optical fibre Communications.

In this joint industry/academia research partnership, the HICC project will leverage the System-on-Chip technology and expertise in high density photonic integration and manufacturing from EFFECT Photonics. The Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) system design, performance testing and digital signal processing capabilities from Aston University will help further push the boundaries to broker a new era of short-distance optical networking based on “digital coherent” techniques. The aim is to identify and enable new network applications that will take coherent optics into new spaces. By further reducing the cost and power requirements of these components, sub-systems, and systems, this project will contribute to a more sustainable and greener future by providing greater bandwidth to everyone.

“EFFECT Photonics has the unique technology to build a fully integrated coherent optical system on a chip, with world leading energy efficiency that enables high performance in a small module. Prof. Forysiak embodies a distinctive combination of cutting-edge optical systems academic research with extensive industrial sector experience at Marconi, Ericsson and Oclaro, and is embedded within Aston University, one of Europe’s leading universities for optical transmission research. The Royal Academy of Engineering funding and expertise brings these elements together. With this partnership we can build a powerhouse that will push the envelope of very high bandwidth internet close to the user for the benefit of all society. I am very excited about this collaboration!” – James Regan, CEO.

“I am delighted to be supported by The Royal Academy of Engineering, EFFECT Photonics, and Aston University to work on the HICC project, together with my close colleagues, Dr Ian Phillips and Dr Stelios Sygletos. The complimentary expertise of EFFECT Photonics in highly integrated System-on-Chip photonics technology and Aston’s long experience in WDM systems R&D provides an ideal platform for this industry/academia research partnership. Together, we have a compelling vision, and I am particularly delighted by the prospect of collaborating with the innovators at EFFECT Photonics, and experiencing the energy, drive and ambition of its start-up working culture.” – Prof. Wladek Forysiak.

EFFECT Photonics’ programmable System-on-Chip technology lies at the heart of its developments in coherent optics. The aim is to provide products that offer line card performance and functions in a pluggable form factor with a very high energy efficiency. This means that performance that has historically been big and expensive, will be pushed to the edges of the network including the encryption and data security you would normally expect to find in a line card. In addition, by lowering the cost and energy consumption per bit, the next generation EFFECT Photonics solutions will enable a more sustainable and greener optical network.

About EFFECT Photonics

EFFECT Photonics delivers highly integrated optical communications products based on its Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) optical System-on-Chip technology. The key enabling technology for DWDM systems is full monolithic integration of all photonic components within a single chip and being able to produce these in volume with high yield at low cost. With this capability, EFFECT Photonics is addressing the need for low cost DWDM solutions driven by the soaring demand for high bandwidth connections between datacentres and back from mobile cell towers. Headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, with additional R&D, manufacturing in South West UK and a facility opening soon in the US, with sales partners worldwide.

https://effectphotonics.com/stagingenvironment123
Press contact: press@effectphotonics.com

Press Releases

May 13, 2021

EFFECT Photonics awarded funding from Heart of South West grant scheme

EFFECT Photonics is honoured to be one of two companies in the UK recently awarded…

Press Releases

April 21, 2021

EFFECT Photonics completes its Series-C funding round raising a total of $43M

Today EFFECT Photonics, a leading developer of high-performance dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) optical components…

Today EFFECT Photonics, a leading developer of high-performance dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) optical components based on its optical System-on-Chip technology, announces the completion of its Series-C funding round, with an additional $6M from the Dutch impact investor Invest-NL, raising a total of $43M.

The first close of the investment round, was co-led by Smile Invest together with existing investor Innovation Industries Fund, exactly one year after announcing the tape-out of its Manta full photonic integration coherent PIC. Smile Invest are joined by existing investors including Innovation Industries Fund, Photon Delta, btov Partners, Brabant Development Agency (BOM) and individual investors. This new round of funding will be used to further expand the current product line of optical transceivers for among other things 5G networks, and to scale up production capacity. In addition, the R&D activities for the next generation of optical chips, with capacity of more than 400 gigabits per second, will also be ramped up.

(Integrated) photonics is a chip technology in which light signals (photons) are used instead of electrical signals (electrons). In a photonic chip, light signals can be generated, modulated, filtered, and detected. The chip technology developed in Eindhoven is the only photonics technology in which all these functions are combined on a single chip, which replaces a complete optical system. These photonic chips currently allow for high-speed data transfer over fiber optic networks, but the technology can also be used in highly sensitive measuring systems in the medical, automotive and the agri-food industries. It is expected that future quantum computers will also use photonic chips on a large scale.

EFFECT Photonics is a spin-off from the Eindhoven University of Technology. As a pioneer in the field, it is one of the first companies to successfully bring a product on the market based on the photonics technology developed at the university. The demand for internet bandwidth by end-users is growing exponentially every year. A trend that is being further accelerated by primarily by the roll-out of 5G, and the increase in working from home due to the Corona virus. EFFECT Photonics enables network operators to increase the capacity of their existing infrastructure without having to lay addition cables which is very costly. Upgrading the transceivers is therefore a more cost-efficient solution in address this need for additional bandwidth.

Boudewijn Docter, one of the founders and President of EFFECT Photonics: “As a company, we have come a long way to make the photonics technology market-ready. We are pleased that Invest-NL is joining our other investors in helping us scale up our production and enabling us to bring additional products to market quicker”.

Ruud Zandvliet, Senior Investment Manager at Invest-NL: “The Netherlands has a unique ecosystem for photonics technologies. EFFECT Photonics is a leading player in this field, capable of developing complex, fully integrated photonic chips. This offers the company the opportunity be a leading player as a manufacturer of the next generation of transceivers. By joining this investment round, Invest-NL contributes to the availability of financing for upscaling and future R&D investments. This is a good example of the role Invest-NL plays in increasing the strength of scale-ups and is in line with our objective of making the Netherlands more sustainable and innovative.

— End of Press Release —

About EFFECT Photonics

EFFECT Photonics produces components for fiber optic networks based on photonic chip technology, originally developed at Eindhoven University of Technology. The unique chip technology from EFFECT Photonics delivers high communication speeds for low costs and low energy consumption. EFFECT Photonics products are used to connect mobile network transmitters to the rest of the Internet and to connect data centers. With the technology of EFFECT Photonics, the capacity of existing fiber optic networks can be increased without having to install additional cables. EFFECT Photonics has offices in Eindhoven Netherlands, Great Britain and Taiwan and an international network of sales partners. www.effectphotonics.com

Contact EFFECT Photonics: press@effectphotonics.com • +31 403041359

About Invest-NL

Invest-NL is an impact investor committed to businesses and projects that will make the Netherlands more sustainable and innovative. Its focus lies on carbon-neutral and circular economy and on innovative, fast-growing companies, or scale-ups. Invest-NL supports innovative entrepreneurs through financing and advice according to one simple principle: impact is our goal, return is our means. As the Dutch partner for European investment institutions, Invest-NL is dedicated to cooperation and always works together with other investors. Invest-NL is headquartered in Amsterdam and employs a staff of 60 people. For more information, go to https://www.invest-nl.nl.

Contact Invest-NL: • Paul Hartogsveld: press@invest-nl.nl • +31 611589127

Tags: CoherentPIC, Investment, InvestNL, Photonics, Telecom

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