NeoPhotonics demos Nano-ITLA ultra-compact external cavity tunable laser

At this week's OFC in San Diego, NeoPhotonics is demonstrating its Nano-ITLA ultra-compact external cavity tunable laser.

The NeoPhotonics Nano-ITLA, which is based on the same external cavity technology used in the company's Micro-ITLA product line, maintains the ultra-narrow linewidth, the low frequency phase noise performance, and the low power consumption of the current product in a compact package approximately one half the size.

The Nano-ITLA utilizes an ASIC control IC that reduces the size of the electronic control circuitry.  The laser can also be used separately with the ASIC mounted on the customer's circuit board.  Using both approaches, the Nano-ITLA is well suited for use in 400ZR small form factor pluggable coherent modules, including OSFP and DD-QSFP, and for compact daughter cards for 600G and 1.2T applications.

NeoPhotonics says that increasing the symbol rate to 64 Gbaud and using higher order modulation, such as 16 QAM to 64 QAM, can increase the data rate per wavelength to 400G or 600G for coherent communications, but will require the most stable, ultra-narrow linewidth laser sources.

"We are pleased to demonstrate our new ultra-compact Nano-ITLA at OFC.  By doing so, we are assuring our customers of the superior features of this uniquely capable laser, which enables the next generation of 400G and 600G compact optical modules.  This Nano-ITLA delivers all of the performance advantages our customers currently enjoy with our external cavity design, but with the laser size reduced by half," said Tim Jenks, Chairman and CEO of NeoPhotonics. "Shrinking the size while maintaining performance is made possible by our Advanced Hybrid Photonic Integration technology," concluded Mr. Jenks.