Ayar Labs demonstrated the industry’s first Terabit per second Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) optical link with its TeraPHY optical I/O chiplet and SuperNova multi-wavelength optical source.
The demonstration shows a fully functional TeraPHY chiplet with 8 optical ports running error free without Forward Error Correction (FEC) for a total bandwidth of 1.024 Tbps and at less than 5 pJ/bit energy efficiency.
“This is yet another industry first demonstration of our technology which promises to transform computing and extend the benefits of Moore’s Law,” said Charles Wuischpard, CEO, Ayar Labs. “Digital transformation is being driven by cloud, connectivity, artificial intelligence, and intelligent edge; our roadmap of products and custom solutions is tailored to serve these high-volume market segments. We remain on track to deliver on several customer commitments by end of year.”
Ayar Labs also demonstrated the industry’s first multi-wavelength, multi-port optical source with 64 addressable wavelengths. Named SuperNova, it offers eight times the number of wavelengths compared to commercially available pluggable products. The SuperNova is also the first product compliant with the optical source specifications of the CW-WDM MSA, an industry consortium that drives standards for advanced optical communication and computing applications that require a leap in performance, efficiency, cost, and bandwidth scaling. The multi-wavelength source leverages laser technology from MACOM, a leading supplier of lasers and optoelectronics for telecommunications and data center applications.“MACOM’s novel laser arrays are ideal for silicon photonics and co-packaged optics,” said Stephen G. Daly, President and CEO of MACOM. “As a promoter-level member of the CW-WDM MSA, we are excited to collaborate with Ayar Labs on the next generation of optical devices based on the MSA’s new specification.”
The details of this industry-first demonstration will be presented as a postdeadline paper by Dr. Mark Wade, Co-Founder and CTO of Ayar Labs, on Friday, June 11 at 9:15 a.m. PDT at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) 2021. OFC postdeadline papers represent the latest and most advanced technical achievements in the field.
(available via OFC conference web site for registrants)