tunable lasers Archives - EFFECT Photonics

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April 10, 2024

Making Smaller Lasers at a Big Scale

The world is moving towards tunability. The combination of tunable lasers and dense wavelength division…

The world is moving towards tunability. The combination of tunable lasers and dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) allows datacom and telecom industries to expand their network capacity without increasing their existing fiber infrastructure. Furthermore, the miniaturization of coherent technology into pluggable transceiver modules has finally enabled the widespread implementation of IP over DWDM solutions.

With the increasing demand for coherent transceivers, many companies have performed acquisitions and mergers that allow them to develop transceiver components internally and thus secure their supply. LightCounting forecasts show that while this consolidation will decrease the sales of modulator and receiver components, the demand for tunable lasers will continue to grow. The forecast expects the tunable laser market for the transceiver to reach a size of $400M in 2026.

East Asia is a huge driver of the rising number of tunable lasers sales. With initiatives like the “Broadband China” strategy and significant investments in 5G and beyond, the demand for advanced optical components, including tunable lasers, has surged in China. Japan and South Korea have a long history of adopting early new optical telecom innovations. After all, Japanese companies are at the forefront of research and development in tunable laser technology, and South Korea has built highly future-proofed 5G networks that are ahead of the implementations in Europe and North America. To meet the demands of this region, the industry needs to improve at making highly integrated tunable lasers at scale.

Making New and Smaller Lasers

The impact of small and integrated lasers extends beyond mere size considerations; it crucially contributes to enhancing power efficiency. Smaller laser designs inherently operate at lower voltages and currents, offering improved heat dissipation and minimizing coupling losses. Photonic integration helps achieve these reductions, maximizing efficiency by consolidating multiple functions onto a single chip.

The journey towards 100G coherent technology in access networks requires compact and power-efficient coherent pluggables in the QSFP28 form factor and, with it, compact and power-efficient tunable lasers that fit this form factor.

This monolithic integration of all tunable laser functions allowed EFFECT Photonics to develop a novel pico-ITLA (pITLA) module that will become the world’s smallest ITLA for coherent applications. The pITLA is the next step in tunable laser integration, including all laser functions in a package with just 20% of the volume of a nano-ITLA module. The figure below shows that even a standard matchstick dwarves the pITLA in size.

EFFECT Photonics’ laser solution is unique because it enables a widely tunable laser for which all its functions, including the wavelength locker, are monolithically integrated on a single chip. This setup is ideal for reducing power consumption and scaling into high production volumes.

The Economics of Scale

As innovative as these new, small lasers can be, they will have little impact if they cannot be manufactured at a high enough volume to satisfy the demands of mobile and cloud providers and drive down the cost per device.

This economy-of-scale principle is the same one behind electronics manufacturing, and the same must be applied to photonics. The more optical components we can integrate into a single chip, the more can the price of each component decrease. The more optical System-on-Chip (SoC) devices can go into a single wafer, the more can the price of each SoC decrease.

Researchers at the Technical University of Eindhoven and the JePPIX consortium have done some modelling to show how this economy of scale principle would apply to photonics. If production volumes can increase from a few thousands of chips per year to a few millions, the price per optical chip can decrease from thousands of Euros to mere tens of Euros. This must be the goal for the optical transceiver and tunable laser industry.

Learning to Scale from Electronics

A key way to improve photonics manufacturing is to learn from electronics packaging, assembly, and testing methods that are already well-known and standardized. After all, building a new special production line is much more expensive than modifying an existing production flow.

One electronic technique essential to transfer into photonics is ball-grid array (BGA) packaging. BGA-style packaging has grown popular among electronics manufacturers over the last few decades. It places the chip connections under the chip package, allowing more efficient use of space in circuit boards, a smaller package size, and better soldering.

Another critical technique to move into photonics is flip-chip bonding. This process is where solder bumps are deposited on the chip in the final fabrication step. The chip is flipped over and aligned with a circuit board for easier soldering.

Figure 5: Simplified steps of the flip chip bonding process.

Takeaways

As the demand for data and telecommunication services surges globally, the industry is moving towards more compact, power-efficient, and scalable laser solutions that integrate all necessary functions on a single chip. With East Asia driving the demand for these advanced components through their ambitious broadband and 5G initiatives, the challenge now lies in applying the economies of scale principle from electronics manufacturing to photonics. This approach would dramatically reduce costs and enable the mass adoption of these technologies.

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Tags: 100G coherent technology, 5G Networks, access networks, acquisitions, ball-grid array, Broadband China strategy, Coherent technology, datacom, Dense wavelength division multiplexing, East Asia, economy-of-scale principle, EFFECT Photonics, electronics manufacturing, electronics packaging, Fiber Infrastructure, Flip-chip bonding, high production volumes, highly integrated tunable lasers, IP over DWDM solutions, JePPIX consortium, LightCounting forecasts, mergers, Network capacity, optical components, photonic integrated chip, photonic integration, Photonics, Pico-ITLA Module, Pluggable transceiver modules, power consumption, Power Efficiency, QSFP28 form factor, System-on-Chip devices, Technical University of Eindhoven, telecom industries, The world, transceiver components, tunable laser market, Tunable laser technology, tunable lasers, wafer, wavelength locker

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March 27, 2024

What’s New Inside a 100G ZR Module?

In the optical access networks, the 400ZR pluggables that have become mainstream in datacom applications…

In the optical access networks, the 400ZR pluggables that have become mainstream in datacom applications are too expensive and power-hungry. Therefore, operators are strongly interested in 100G pluggables that can house coherent optics in compact form factors, just like 400ZR pluggables do. The industry is labeling these pluggables as 100ZR.

A recently released Heavy Reading survey revealed that over 75% of operators surveyed believe that 100G coherent pluggable optics will be used extensively in their edge and access evolution strategy. However, this interest had yet to materialize into a 100ZR market because no affordable or power-efficient products were available. The most the industry could offer was 400ZR pluggables that were “powered-down” for 100G capacity.

By embracing smaller and more customizable light sources, new optimized DSP designs, and high-volume manufacturing capabilities, we can develop native 100ZR solutions with lower costs that better fit edge and access networks.

Smaller Tunable Lasers

Since the telecom and datacom industries want to pack more and more transceivers on a single router faceplate, integrable tunable laser assemblies (ITLAs) must maintain performance while moving to smaller footprints and lower power consumption and cost.

Fortunately, such ambitious specifications became possible thanks to improved photonic integration technology. The original 2011 ITLA standard from the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) was 74mm long by 30.5mm wide. By 2015, most tunable lasers shipped in a OIF form factor that cut the original ITLA footprint in half. In 2021, the nano-ITLA form factor designed for QSFP-DD and OSFP modules had once again cut the micro-ITLA footprint almost in half.

There are still plenty of discussions over the future of ITLA packaging to fit the QSFP28 form factors of these new 100ZR transceivers. EFFECT Photonics has developed a solution that monolithically integrates all tunable laser functions (including the wavelength locker) into a novel pico-ITLA (pITLA) module that will become the world’s smallest ITLA for coherent applications. The pITLA is the next step in tunable laser integration, including all laser functions in a package with just 20% of the volume of a nano-ITLA module. The figure below shows that even a standard matchstick dwarves the pITLA in size.

More Efficient DSPs

The 5 Watt-power requirement of 100ZR in a QSFP28 form factor is significantly reduced compared to the 15-Watt specification of 400ZR transceivers in a QSFP-DD form factor. Achieving this reduction requires a digital signal processor (DSP) specifically optimized for the 100G transceiver.

Current DSPs are designed to be agnostic to the material platform of the photonic integrated circuit (PIC) they are connected to, which can be Indium Phosphide (InP) or Silicon. Thus, they do not exploit the intrinsic advantages of these material platforms. Co-designing the DSP chip alongside the PIC can lead to a much better fit between these components.

To illustrate the impact of co-designing PIC and DSP, let’s look at an example. A PIC and a standard platform-agnostic DSP typically operate with signals of differing intensities, so they need some RF analog electronic components to “talk” to each other. This signal power conversion overhead constitutes roughly 2-3 Watts or about 10-15% of transceiver power consumption.

If this InP PIC and the DSP are designed and optimized together instead of using a standard DSP, the PIC could be designed to run at a voltage compatible with the DSP’s signal output. This way, the optimized DSP could drive the PIC directly without needing the RF analog driver, doing away with most of the power conversion overhead we discussed previously.

Industrial Temperature Ranges

Traditionally, coherent devices have resided in the controlled settings of data center machine rooms or network provider equipment rooms. These rooms have active temperature control, cooling systems, dust and particle filters, airlocks, and humidity control. In such a setting, pluggable transceivers must operate within the so-called commercial temperature range (c-temp) from 0 to 70ºC.

On the other hand, the network edge often involves uncontrolled settings outdoors at the whims of Mother Nature. It might be at the top of an antenna, on mountain ranges, within traffic tunnels, or in Northern Europe’s severe winters. For these outdoor settings, transceivers should operate in the industrial temperature range (I-temp) from -40 to 85ºC. Higher altitude deployments provide additional challenges too. Because the air gets thinner, networking equipment cooling mechanisms become less effective, and the device cannot withstand casing temperatures as high as they can at sea level.

Making an I-temp transceiver means that every internal component—lasers, optical engine, DSP—must also be I-temp compliant. Thus, it’s essential to specifically design laser sub-assemblies and DSPs that can reliably work within the I-temp range.

Takeaways

The advent of 100G ZR modules addresses the industry’s need for more affordable and energy-efficient alternatives to implement coherent technologies in access networks. The drive towards miniaturization, exemplified by EFFECT Photonics’ development of the world’s smallest ITLA module, alongside DSP optimizations that minimize power conversion overhead, will help develop pluggables that meet the efficiency and footprint requirements of access networks. Furthermore, it’s necessary for these modules to operate across an I-temp range that can handle a variety of challenging environments in which these networks must operate.

These developments will help operators lay the groundwork for a new generation of coherent optical access networks.

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Tags: 100G ZR, access networks, coherent optics, Cost-effective solutions, Datacom applications, DSP optimization, Edge evolution, efficiency, energy consumption, Environmental challenges, Industrial temperature range, ITLA modules, miniaturization, network operators, Networking equipment, Optical Access Networks., Photonics, Photonics Integration, pluggables, Technology advancements, tunable lasers

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February 21, 2024

Why (Small) Laser Size Matters

Several applications in the optical network edge would benefit from upgrading from 10G to 100G…

Several applications in the optical network edge would benefit from upgrading from 10G to 100G DWDM or from 100G grey to 100G DWDM optics:

Business Services could scale their enterprise bandwidth beyond single-channel 100G links.
Fixed Access links could upgrade the uplinks of existing termination devices such as optical line terminals (OLTs) and Converged Cable Access Platforms (CCAPs) from 10G to 100G DWDM.
Mobile Midhaul benefits from a seamless upgrade of existing links from 10G to 100G DWDM.
Mobile Backhaul benefits from upgrading their linksto 100G IPoDWDM.

The 100G coherent pluggables for these applications will have very low power consumption (less than 6 Watts) and QSFP28 form factors that are slightly smaller than a typical 400G QSFP-DD transceiver. To enable this next generation of coherent pluggables, the next generation of tunable lasers needs to reach another level of optical and electronic integration.

The Impact of Small and Integrated Lasers

Laser miniaturization and integration is not merely a matter of size; it’s also vital to enhance the power efficiency of these lasers. Below are some examples of the ways small lasers can improve energy efficiency.

Lower Operating Voltage and Currents: Smaller, highly-integrated laser designs normally require lower threshold voltages and currents than larger lasers.
Improved Heat Dissipation: Compact designs reduce the distances light must travel inside the laser chip. This leads to fewer optical losses and heat dissipation.
Fewer Coupling Losses: One of the hardest things to do in photonics is coupling between free-space optics and a chip. Highly integrated lasers combine multiple functions on a single chip and avoid this kind of coupling and its associated losses.

Photonic integration is vital to achieve these size and power consumption reductions. The more components can be integrated on a single chip, the more can losses be minimized and the more efficient the optical transceiver can become.

The Past Successes and Future Challenges of Laser Integration

Over the last decade, technological progress in tunable laser integration has matched the need for smaller footprints. In 2011, tunable lasers followed the multi-source agreement (MSA) for integrable tunable laser assemblies (ITLAs). By 2015, tunable lasers were sold in the more compact micro-ITLA form factor, constituting a mere 22% of the original ITLA package volume. In 2019, the nano-ITLA form factor reduced ITLA volumes further, as the module was just 39% of the micro-ITLA volume.

Figure 1: Evolution of tunable laser form factors for coherent optics (2011-2021). Figure inspired from a picture in Laser Focus World.

Despite this progress, the industry will need further laser integration for the QSFP28 pluggables used in 100G ZR coherent access. Since QSFP28 pluggables have a lower power consumption and slightly smaller footprint than QSFP-DD modules, they should not use the same lasers as in QSFP-DD modules. They need specialized laser solutions with a smaller footprint and lower power consumption.

Figure 2: Comparison between QSFP-DD and QSFP-28 form factors for 100G applications.

Achieving these ambitious targets requires monolithic lasers that ideally include all key laser functions (gain, laser cavity, and wavelength locker) on the same chip.

Pushing Tunable Laser Sizes Further Down

Reducing the footprint of tunable lasers in the future will need even greater integration of their parts. For example, every tunable laser needs a wavelength locker component that can stabilize the laser’s output regardless of environmental conditions such as temperature. Integrating the wavelength locker component on the laser chip instead of attaching it externally would help reduce the laser package’s footprint and power consumption.

EFFECT Photonics’ laser solution is unique because it enables a widely tunable laser for which all its functions, including the wavelength locker, are monolithically integrated on a single chip. This setup is ideal for reducing power consumption and scaling into high production volumes.

This monolithic integration of all tunable laser functions allowed EFFECT Photonics to develop a novel pico-ITLA (pITLA) module that will become the world’s smallest ITLA for coherent applications. The pITLA is the next step in tunable laser integration, including all laser functions in a package with just 20% of the volume of a nano-ITLA module. The figure below shows that even a standard matchstick dwarves the pITLA in size.

Figure 6: Volume reduction of ITLA form factors for coherent optics (2011-2023). A match of roughly 4cm in length is included for scale. — Figure 3: Volume reduction of ITLA form factors for coherent optics (2011-2023). A match of roughly 4cm in length is included for scale.

Takeaways

The impact of small and integrated lasers extends beyond mere size considerations; it crucially contributes to enhancing power efficiency. Smaller laser designs inherently operate at lower voltages and currents, offering improved heat dissipation and minimizing coupling losses. Photonic integration emerges as a pivotal factor in achieving these reductions, maximizing efficiency by consolidating multiple functions onto a single chip.

The journey towards 100G coherent technology in access networks requires compact and power-efficient coherent pluggables in the QSFP28 form factor and, with it, compact and power-efficient tunable lasers that fit this form factor. EFFECT Photonics is contributing a new step in this integration and miniaturization process with its pico-ITLA module. With a volume 20% that of a nano-ITLA module, the pITLA not only meets ambitious targets but also exemplifies the continuous push towards achieving compact, efficient, and scalable tunable lasers for the optical networking edge.

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Tags: 100G Grey, 10G to 100G DWDM, Business services, Coherent pluggables, Converged Cable Access Platforms, EFFECT Photonics, Enterprise Bandwidth, Fixed Access Links, IPoDWDM, Laser Size, Mobile Backhaul, Mobile Midhaul, Optical Line Terminals, Optical Network Edge, Photonics Integration, Pico-ITLA Module, power consumption, QSFP28 Form Factors, Single-channel 100G Links, tunable lasers, Uplinks

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February 7, 2024

What is Laser Linewidth and Why Does it Matter

The world is moving towards tunability. The combination of tunable lasers and dense wavelength division…

The world is moving towards tunability. The combination of tunable lasers and dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) allows the datacom and telecom industries to expand their network capacity without increasing their existing fiber infrastructure. Furthermore, the miniaturization of coherent technology into pluggable transceiver modules has enabled the widespread implementation of IP over DWDM solutions. Self-tuning algorithms have also made DWDM solutions more widespread by simplifying installation and maintenance. Hence, many application cases—metro transport, data center interconnects, and —are moving towards tunable pluggables.

The tunable laser is a core component of all these tunable communication systems, both direct detection and coherent. The laser generates the optical signal modulated and sent over the optical fiber. Thus, the purity and strength of this signal will have a massive impact on the bandwidth and reach of the communication system.

What is laser linewidth?

Coherent systems encode information in the phase of the light, and the purer the light source is, the more information it can transmit. An ideal, perfectly pure light source can generate a single, exact color of light. However, real-life lasers are not pure and will generate light outside their intended color. The size of this deviation is what we call the laser linewidth. In other words, the linewidth describes the range of wavelengths present in the wavelength spectrum of the laser beam.

The linewidth of a laser can be defined in different ways depending on the specific criteria used. Here are a few examples:

Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM): This is a common and straightforward definition. It refers to the width of the laser spectrum at the point where the intensity is half its maximum.
Gaussian Linewidth: In some cases, the linewidth can be characterized by the standard deviation of a Gaussian distribution that fits the spectral profile of the laser output.
Schawlow-Townes Linewidth: This definition is associated with the quantum noise of the laser. You could consider this the fundamental, smallest possible linewidth an “ideal” laser could have.
Lorentzian Linewidth: The Lorentzian linewidth is based on the Lorentzian distribution, often used to model the spectral lines of certain lasers.
Frequency or Wavelength Range: Instead of using a specific criterion like FWHM, some applications may define linewidth by specifying the frequency or wavelength range within which a certain percentage (e.g., 95%) of the total power is contained.

These different definitions may be more suitable for specific contexts or applications, depending on the requirements and characteristics of the laser system in question.

What Impact Does Linewidth Have on Coherent Transmission?

A laser is a very precise generator of light signals. Phase noise is like a tiny, random wobble or instability in the timing of these signals. It’s as if the laser can’t decide exactly when to start and stop its light output, creating a small amount of uncertainty in the timing. Precise timing is everything for communication applications.

An impure laser with a large linewidth will have a more unstable phase that propagates errors in its transmitted data, as shown in the diagram below. This means it will transmit at a lower speed than desired.

whats inside a tunable laser Figure-2 — Figure 1: Impact of laser linewidth on phase noise during coherent transmission. The diagram shows the points transmitted by a coherent system at different laser line widths (measured by frequency). The larger the laser linewidth, the blurrier the transmitted points become, to the point that they cannot be distinguished from each other—source: Ragheb et al. (2017).

What are Some Ways to Reduce Laser Linewidth and Noise?

One of the most straightforward ways to improve the linewidth of a semiconductor laser is to use it inside a second, somewhat larger resonator. This setup is called an external cavity laser (ECL) since this new resonator or cavity will use additional optical elements external to the original laser.

Figure 2 : Schematic of an external cavity laser. A typical semiconductor laser is the “base laser” (it could even be a DFB or DBR). The external cavity around that base laser is built with additional elements such as lenses, mirrors, or gratings for additional wavelength tuning.

The new external resonator also provides more degrees of freedom for tuning the laser. ECLs have become the state-of-the-art solution in the telecom industry: they use a DFB or DBR laser as the “base laser” and external gratings as their filtering element for additional tuning. These lasers can provide a high-quality laser beam with low noise, narrow linewidth, and a wide tuning range. However, they came with a cost: manufacturing complexity.

EFFECT Photonics takes a very different approach to building lasers. Most developers make their lasers using linear resonators in which the laser light bounces back and forth between two mirrors. However, EFFECT Photonics uses ring resonators, which take a different approach to feedback: the light loops multiple times inside a ring that contains the active medium. The ring is coupled to the rest of the optical circuit via a waveguide.

Figure 5: Comparison between (a) a linear laser and (b) a ring laser. Both of these diagrams show the electrical p- and n- contacts. — Figure 3: Comparison between (a) a linear laser and (b) a ring laser. Both of these diagrams show the electrical p- and n- contacts.

The power of the ring resonator lies in its compactness, flexibility, and integrability. While a single ring resonator is not that impressive or tunable, using multiple rings and other optical elements allows them to achieve linewidth and tunability on par with the state-of-the-art tunable lasers that use linear resonators.

Takeaways

Laser linewidth, which describes the range of wavelengths in the laser beam, is paramount in coherent optical transmission systems. In such systems, where information is encoded in the phase of light, a purer light source allows for transmitting more information. A narrower laser linewidth corresponds to a more stable phase, reducing phase noise and enhancing the signal quality.

Techniques such as external cavity lasers (ECL) have been employed to improve linewidth, offering a high-quality laser beam with low noise and narrow linewidth. Alternatively, EFFECT Photonics employs ring resonators, providing an innovative approach to achieving linewidth and tunability comparable to state-of-the-art tunable lasers while emphasizing compactness and integrability.

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Tags: Coherent technology, coherent transmission, Data center interconnects, Dense-wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM), EFFECT Photonics, External cavity laser (ECL), Frequency range, Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM), Gaussian Linewidth, IP over DWDM, Laser linewidth, Lorentzian Linewidth, Metro transport, Phase noise, Pluggable transceiver modules, Ring resonators, Schawlow-Townes Linewidth, Self-tuning algorithms, tunable lasers, Wavelength range

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November 24, 2022

What’s an ITLA and Why Do I Need One?

The tunable laser is a core component of every optical communication system, both direct detect…

The tunable laser is a core component of every optical communication system, both direct detect and coherent. The laser generates the optical signal modulated and sent over the optical fiber. Thus, the purity and strength of this signal will have a massive impact on the bandwidth and reach of the communication system.

Depending on the material platform, system architecture, and requirements, optical system developers must balance laser parameters—tunability, purity, size, environmental resistance, and power—for the best system performance.

In this article, we will talk about one specific kind of laser—the integrable tunable laser assembly (ITLA)—and when it is needed.

When Do I Need an ITLA?

The promise of silicon photonics (SiP) is compatibility with existing electronic manufacturing ecosystems and infrastructure. Integrating silicon components on a single chip with electronics manufacturing processes can dramatically reduce the footprint and the cost of optical systems and open avenues for closer integration with silicon electronics on the same chip. However, the one thing silicon photonics misses is the laser component.

Silicon is not a material that can naturally emit laser light from electrical signals. Decades of research have created silicon-based lasers with more unconventional nonlinear optical techniques. Still, they cannot match the power, efficiency, tunability, and cost-at-scale of lasers made from indium phosphide (InP) and other III-V compound semiconductors.

Therefore, making a suitable laser for silicon photonics does not mean making an on-chip laser from silicon but an external laser from III-V materials such as InP. This light source will be coupled via optical fiber to the silicon components on the chip while maintaining a low enough footprint and cost for high-volume integration. The external laser typically comes in the form of an integrable tunable laser assembly (ITLA).

Figure 1: Example of using an external laser (left) with other photonic components in comparison to using an integrated laser (right)

Meanwhile, a photonic chip developer that uses the InP platform for its entire chip instead of silicon can use an integrated laser directly on its chip. Using an external or integrated depends on the transceiver developer’s device requirements, supply chain, and manufacturing facilities and processes. You can read more about the differences in this article.

What is an ITLA?

In summary, an integrable tunable laser assembly (ITLA) is a small external laser that can be coupled to an optical system (like a transceiver) via optical fiber. This ITLA must maintain a low enough footprint and cost for high-volume integration with the optical system.

Since the telecom and datacom industries want to pack more and more transceivers on a single router faceplate, ITLAs need to maintain performance while moving to smaller footprints and lower power consumption and cost.

Fortunately, such ambitious specifications became possible thanks to improved photonic integration technology. The original 2011 ITLA standard from the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) was 74mm long by 30.5mm wide. By 2015, most tunable lasers shipped in a micro-ITLA form factor that cut the original ITLA footprint in half. In 2021, the nano-ITLA form factor designed for QSFP-DD and OSFP modules had once again cut the micro-ITLA footprint almost in half. The QSFP-DD modules that house the full transceiver are smaller (78mm by 20mm) than the original ITLA form factor. Stunningly, tunable laser manufacturers achieved this size reduction without impacting laser purity and power.

Figure 2: Evolution of tunable laser form factors for coherent optics (2011-2021). Figure inspired from a picture in Laser Focus World.

The Exploding Market for ITLAs

With the increasing demand for coherent transceivers, many companies have performed acquisitions and mergers that allow them to develop transceiver components internally and thus secure their supply. LightCounting predicts that this consolidation will decrease the sales of modulator and receiver components but that the demand for tunable lasers (mainly in the form of ITLAs) will continue to grow. The forecast expects the tunable laser market for transceivers to reach a size of $400M in 2026. We talk more about these market forces in one of our previous articles.

Figure 3: Global Market sales for high-performance modulators and receivers and tunable lasers. (Historical Data and Forecast). Source: LightCounting Market Forecast Report (April 2021)

However, the industry consolidation will make it harder for component and equipment manufacturers to source lasers from independent vendors for their transceivers. The market needs more independent vendors to provide high-performance ITLA components that adapt to different datacom or telecom provider needs. Following these trends, at EFFECT Photonics we are not only developing the capabilities to provide a complete, fully-integrated coherent transceiver solution but also the ITLA units needed by vendors who use external lasers.

Takeaways

The world is moving towards tunability. As telecom and datacom industries seek to expand their network capacity without increasing their fiber infrastructure, the sales of tunable transceivers will explode in the coming years. These transceivers need tunable lasers with smaller sizes and lower power consumption than ever.

Some transceivers will use lasers integrated directly on the same chip as the optical engine. Others will have an external laser coupled via fiber to the optical engine. The need for these external lasers led to the development of the ITLA form factors, which get smaller and smaller with every generation.

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Tags: coherent, Density, discrete, DSP, full integration, high-performance, independent, InP, ITLA, micro ITLA, nano ITLA, power consumption, reach, SiP, size, tunable, tunable lasers, versatile

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Ultra Pure Light Sources

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Pluggable Modules – Direct Detect

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ASICs

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In the News

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