NeoPhotonics reported a significant company and industry milestone: shipment of a cumulative total of more than two million of its ultra-narrow linewidth tunable lasers since initiating shipments in 2011.
NeoPhotonics began shipping narrow linewidth tunable lasers in 2011 in the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) standard ITLA form factor, which was approximately 3 inches long and approximately one inch wide. NeoPhotonics introduced its Micro-ITLA in 2014, which reduced the size by half, and in 2019 introduced the Nano-ITLA, again reducing the size approximately by half. In addition to its best-in-class low phase noise, the Nano-ITLA has low electrical power consumption, making it well suited for small form factor pluggable coherent modules. The Nano-ITLA is now featured in the NeoPhotonics 400ZR QSFP-DD module, which is a complete coherent transceiver capable of sending 400Gbps of data up to 1000 km, in a package size that is not very different from the original ITLA laser alone.
“We are pleased to have provided our customers over the last decade with both industry-leading performance and industry-leading volume, reaching 1 million cumulative shipments in 2019 and now 2 million shipments just two years later,” said Tim Jenks, Chairman and CEO of NeoPhotonics. “As industry data rates have increased from 100Gbps to now 800Gbps, the low noise and low power consumption of our lasers have become increasingly important, and their unique qualities have opened up completely new application areas such as satellite communications, remote sensing, automotive LIDAR and medical diagnostics,” concluded Mr. Jenks.