It comes as no surprise that one of the hottest topics from the past 3 years is still a hot topic at #OFC22. 400ZR is ramping with new applications now coming on, says Tom Williams, Vice President, Acacia - now part of Cisco.
Tuesday, March 8, 2022
ADVA launches BiDi pluggable for in access networks
ADVA introduced a new pluggable MicroMux Edge BiDi device for 10GbE connectivity deployments in wireless and wireline access networks.
The standards-compliant QSFP+ device offers four independent and bidirectional 10GbE optical interfaces. It supports single-fiber operations and provides up to 40km reach. The device ensures the same latency in both the transmit and receive directions, preventing issues with varying propagation delay. The MicroMux Edge BiDi works in tandem with any third-party bidirectional SFP+ or with ADVA’s BX40U SFP+, which also features an industrial operating temperature range, making it ideal for outdoor deployments.
“Cloud enterprises services and residential broadband are driving the need for higher capacity in the last mile. But in many areas, deploying new fiber isn’t possible or the cost of leasing is simply too expensive. Our new MicroMux Edge BiDi is the answer. It minimizes fiber consumption by providing duplex communication over a single fiber. Open and pluggable, the MicroMux Edge BiDi is specifically designed for access networks where cost, space and latency come at a premium,” said Stephan Rettenberger, senior VP of marketing and investor relations at ADVA. “By enabling single-fiber operations, our new pluggable device is also perfect for use cases that cannot tolerate delay variations between upstream and downstream signals, such as meeting the stringent network synchronization demands of 5G.”
“In recent years, our MicroMux range has enabled a new approach to infrastructure expansion, empowering operators to smoothly upgrade their legacy networks without compromising real estate, power or spectral efficiency. Now we’re taking our innovation further with the launch of our MicroMux™ Edge BiDi. It packs the functionality of four independent 10GBase-BX40 interfaces into a single QSFP+ housing and delivers extended reach of up to 40km,” commented Saeid Aramideh, VP of business development at Optical Engines, ADVA. “Whether they’re providing mobile x-haul, wholesale Ethernet services or enterprise applications, our plug-and-play solution will enable network operators to greatly improve efficiency and unlock new value in their deployed infrastructure.”
https://adva.li/micromux-edge-bidi-slides
What's hot at #OFC22? - LIPAC
David Park, CEO of LIPAC, introduces a new methodology of assembling any type of photonic and electrical ICs in a single package form factor using Advanced Semiconductor Packaging technology such as FOWLP. This new methodology is called Optical System in Package, or O-SiP in short.
Eoptolink offers industrial temp 100G QSFP28 PAM4 transceivers
Eoptolink Technology introduced QSFP28 100G single lambda PAM4 transceivers for industrial temperature range (-40⁰C to +85⁰C) and designed for use in 500m, 2km and 10km 100 Gigabit Ethernet links over single-mode fiber. They support the IEEE802.3 100GBase standard.
Eoptolink says the extended temperature range performance becomes more critical as 100G PAM4 transceivers move closer to the edge of telecom networks.
The modules incorporate 1 channel optical signal, on 1311nm center wavelength, operating at 100Gbps data rate. This module can convert 4 channels of 25Gbps (NRZ) electrical input data to 1 channel of 100Gbps (PAM4) optical signal, and also can convert 1 channel of 100Gbps (PAM4) optical signal to 4 channels of 25Gbps (NRZ) electrical output data. The electrical interface of the module is compliant with the OIF CEI-28G-VSR and QSFP28 MSA.
“Our customers want to migrate their existing 10G network edge infrastructure to higher data-rates. Our 100G single lambda i-temp transceiver portfolio enables them to achieve this and do so in a cost effective way”, explains Sean Davies, Director Sales Americas at Eoptolink. “We are a leading supplier of 100G and 400G PAM4 transceivers so the addition of i-temp modules to our portfolio was a natural move and fits well within our portfolio. Our excellent R&D and production capabilities have allowed us to help our customers to face the network challenges.”
http://www.eoptolink.com/news/334-eoptolink-goes-i-temp-for-100g-qsfp28-pam4-optical-transceivers
Eoptolink launches QSFP-DD 400G ZR and ZR+ transceivers
Eoptolink Technology launched QSFP-DD 400G ZR and ZR+ transceivers for DCI and metro applications.
Eoptolink 400G QSFP56-DD ZR transceiver module is capable of transmission distances up to 120km and compliant to the OIF 400G ZR standard, while 400G QSFP56-DD ZR+ transceiver module is capable of transmission distances up to 480km and compliant to the Open ZR+ standard. Both modules are using the Silicon Photonics (SiPho) based optical engine and the latest DSP generation that enables 400G coherent transmission. The QSFP-DD form factor and CMIS5.1 support makes them suitable for transmission applications using Ethernet switch equipment.
The new transceivers use Marvell's Deneb Coherent DSP.
“Eoptolink has long since been a leader for high-speed transceivers and adding coherent technology to our portfolio gives us a good foundation for further innovation,” explained Richard Huang, CEO of Eoptolink. “Coherent technology is a way forward to even higher speed interconnects. We believe that pluggable optics will continue to offer maximum flexibility to OEM/ODM switch vendors.”
Source Photonics readies 800G QSFP-DD800 and OSFP transceivers
Source Photonics confirmed that its 800G QSFP-DD800 and OSFP transceivers are ready for pre-production.
“Multiple 800G transceiver offerings in different form factors with various optical interfaces will be available to support our customers to smoothly upgrade their datacenter optical connection from 400G to 800G,” said Frank Chang, Chief Engineer, and head of the CTO office at Source Photonics. “After successful product demonstration and interoperability tests, these transceivers are ready for pre-production now, and we are accepting volume orders from key customers.”
The product portfolio of 800G transceivers for Switching and Routing applications includes:
800G DR8 OSFP
- Supports the reaches of 500m, 2km and 10km
- Supports 8x100GbE and 2x400GbE breakout applications
- Compliant with IEEE P802.3ck D3.0 and IEEE 802.3cu-2021 standards
- Compliant with OSFP MSA 4.0
- Supports MPO-16 & Dual MPO-12 for backward compatible to 2x400GbE DR4 breakout
800G DR8 QSFP-DD800
- Supports the reaches of 500m, 2km and 10km
- Supports 8x100GbE and 2x400GbE breakout applications
- Compliant with IEEE P802.3ck D3.0 and IEEE 802.3cu-2021 standards
- Compliant with QSFP-DD800 MSA HW Rev 6.01 Type 2A with MPO-16 connector
2x400G-FR4 OSFP
- Supports the reaches of 2km, 6km and 10km
- Compliant with IEEE P802.3ck D3.0 and IEEE 802.3cu-2021 standards
- Compliant with OSFP MSA 4.0
- Supports Dual CS & Dual LC for legacy fiber plants
2x400G-FR4 QSFP-DD800
- Supports the reaches of 2km, 6km and 10km
- Compliant with IEEE 802.3cu-2021 and IEEE P802.3ck D3.0
- Compliant with QSFP-DD800 MSA HW Rev 6.01 Type 2A with Dual CS connector
Google to acquire Mandiant
Google agreed to acquire Mandiant for $23.00 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $5.4 billion, inclusive of Mandiant’s net cash. The offer price represents a 57% premium to the undisturbed 10-day trailing volume weighted average price as of February 7, 2022, the last full trading day prior to published market speculation.
Mandiant will be integrated in Google Cloud.
Google Cloud said it is committed to advancing its security offerings to better protect and advise customers across their on-premise and cloud environments.
“Cyber security is a mission, and we believe it’s one of the most important of our generation. Google Cloud shares our mission-driven culture to bring security to every organization,” said Kevin Mandia, CEO, Mandiant. “Together, we will deliver our expertise and intelligence at scale via the Mandiant Advantage SaaS platform, as part of the Google Cloud security portfolio. These efforts will help organizations to effectively, efficiently and continuously manage and configure their complex mix of security products.”
“The Mandiant brand is synonymous with unmatched insights for organizations seeking to keep themselves secure in a constantly changing environment,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud. “This is an opportunity to deliver an end-to-end security operations suite and extend one of the best consulting organizations in the world. Together we can make a profound impact in securing the cloud, accelerating the adoption of cloud computing, and ultimately make the world safer.”
Trellix emerges from McAfee Enterprise + FireEye, ML extended detection and response
Symphony Technology Group (STG) announced the launch of Trellix, a new business that emerges from the previously announced merger of McAfee Enterprise and FireEye in October 2021.Trelix will deliver extended detection and response (XDR) to organizations with a focus on accelerating technology innovation through machine learning and automation. The company says its new name evokes the structure of a trellis, a strong and safe framework used to support...
FireEye relaunches as Mandiant
FireEye will change its name and brand to Mandiant, effective October 4th. The company's Nasdaq ticker symbol to MNDT at the opening of trading on Tuesday, October 5, 2021.The plan to change the corporate name and stock ticker symbol follows the announcement on June 2, 2021 that the company entered into a definitive agreement to sell the FireEye Products business, including the FireEye name, to a consortium led by Symphony Technology Group (STG).“Given...
Mandiant acquires Intrigue for attack surface discovery/assessment
Mandiant, a part of FireEye, has acquired Intrigue, a start-up focused on attack surface management. Financial terms were not disclosed.Intrigue offers an Open Platform For Comprehensive Asset Discovery and Risk-based Vulnerability Assessment. The company was founded in 2019 by Jonathan Cran, ex-Rapid7, Bugcrowd, and Kenna Security, developer of multiple leading security technologies, standards and frameworks.Mandiant plans to integrated Intrigue’s...
EFFECT Photonics acquires Viasat's Coherent Optical DSP business
EFFECT Photonics agreed to acquire coherent optical digital signal processing (DSP) and forward error correction (FEC) technology as well as a highly experienced engineering team, from Viasat. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Viasat is a long-established player in DSP and FEC technology with eight generations of design IP.
From this acquisition, EFFECT Photonics said it will now own the entire coherent technology stack of all optical functions, including a high-performance tunable laser, together with DSP and FEC.
EFFECT Photonics has also secured an additional $20M in Series-C funding bringing the total to $63M. Additionally, pursuant to the DSP acquisition agreement, Viasat will be joining EFFECT Photonics’ Supervisory Board and hold a minority interest in the Company.
“This is a significant step in accelerating our ambition to make coherent optical communications ubiquitous and further drive our product portfolio growth. We look forward to welcoming the team of highly skilled and experienced design architects and engineers who will be joining us to drive the development of energy efficient, high performance and affordable coherent solutions.
IP Infusion and Jabil Photonics debut 400G ZR OLS
IP Infusion and Jabil Photonics introduced a 400G Open Line System – the 400G ZR OLS.
The solution optimizes the transport of 400ZR signals over 80/120 kilometers by utilizing the IP Infusion OcNOS software stack to meet the massive demand for bandwidth globally.
Within the optical domain, this surge has impacted the products and modules that translate client signals into an optical signal, such as transponders and mux-ponders. Additionally, this surge is evolving towards pluggable coherent modules implementing 400G ZR/ZR+ standards that can be plugged directly into Ethernet switches and/or IP routers.
The new 400G ZR OLS is provided in a standard 1RU chassis and can be installed into the same Ethernet switch and cloud server rack. The product is available to end customers, network integrators and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in a variety of business models, including as a white label.
“The need for disaggregated solutions has expanded fast from the data center to cell sites and gateways to optical transport networks,” said Stefano Schiavoni, vice president and GM of Jabil’s Photonics business unit. “The architectural change of transport networks allows for extended disaggregation and openness to optical line systems with particular focus on simple scenarios where the optical network is a point-to-point connection between data centers. As a result, operations become more simplified and lower cost are achieved. We are pleased to partner with IP Infusion, an open networking market leader, to enable customers to enjoy the advantages of this new architecture.”
“Disaggregated solutions for optical networks are essential to meet the growing global demand for 5G bandwidth,” said Atsushi Ogata, President and CEO of IP Infusion. “We are pleased to pair our highly scalable OcNOS® architecture with Jabil Photonics to offer a solution that’s a significant economic and technical breakthrough for network operators, bypassing vendor and technology lock-ins.”
Skorpios and ColorChip partner on optical modules
Skorpios Technologies and ColorChip announced a strategic relationship to provide optical modules.
ColorChip will sell modules under its own brand, and private label modules for sale by Skorpios at various speeds and performance levels. The companies also agreed to cooperate on future products such as Co-packaged Optics and Coherent Modules.
"Skorpios' fully integrated optical functionality greatly simplifies our manufacturing and reduces our costs with known good die," said Yigal Ezra, CEO of ColorChip. "Our long experience building modules with integrated photonic platforms reaches its ultimate with Skorpios' product. We believe that Skorpios' Silicon Photonics technology combined with our multi-million unit annual capacity will help the industry to enable single mode transceiver pricing at 50 cents per gigabit for 200G, 400G and beyond."
www.color-chip.com
Monday, March 7, 2022
GlobalFoundries unveils next gen silicon photonics platform
GlobalFoundries unveiled its next generation silicon photonics platform and active design wins with major customers, including collaborations with Broadcom, Cisco Systems, Marvell, NVIDIA, Ayar Labs, Lightmatter, PsiQuantum, Ranovus and Xanadu. The platform enables a high level of integration onto a photonics integrated circuit (PIC). It also supports innovative packaging solutions, such as the passive attachment for larger fiber arrays, support for 2.5D packaging, and on-die lasers.
GF Fotonix is a monolithic platform, the first in the industry to combine its differentiated 300mm photonics features and 300GHz-class RF-CMOS on a silicon wafer. The company says its new platform consolidates complex processes that were previously distributed across multiple chips onto a single chip by combining a photonic system, radio frequency (RF) components and high-performance complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) logic on a single silicon chip.
GF is the only pure-play foundry with a 300mm monolithic silicon photonics solution that has demonstrated the industry’s highest data rate per fiber (0.5Tbps/fiber). This enables 1.6-3.2Tbps optical chiplets, which deliver faster, more efficient transmission of data, more efficiently with better signal integrity. In addition, the up to 10,000x improvement in system error rate enables next generation artificial intelligence (AI).
GF Fotonix solutions will be manufactured at the company’s advanced manufacturing facility in Malta, N.Y., with the PDK 1.0 available in April 2022. EDA partners Ansys, Cadence Design Systems, Inc., and Synopsys provide design tools and flows to support GF’s customers and their solutions. GF provides customers with reference design kits, MPWs, testing, pre- and post-fab, turnkey and semiconductor manufacturing services to help customers get to market faster.
“As one of our trusted semiconductor partners across a broad range of technologies and process nodes, we are happy to see Global Foundries extend their investments for enabling a photonics ecosystem across components and integrated solutions,” Liming Tsau, vice president of Foundry Engineering, Broadcom Inc.
“The demands of today and tomorrow’s networking and communications infrastructure are requiring higher performance technologies for the design and manufacture of our optical transceiver modules,” said Bill Gartner, senior vice president and general manager of Optical Systems and Optics Group, Cisco Systems, Inc. “Our heavy investment and leadership in silicon photonics, combined with GF’s feature rich manufacturing technology, allows us to deliver best in class products.”
“Marvell continues to lead the industry with the highest performance transimpedance amplifiers and modulator drivers for next-generation optical connectivity solutions for the cloud data centers and carrier markets,” said Dr. Loi Nguyen, executive vice president, Optical and Copper Connectivity Group, Marvell. “GF’s latest silicon germanium (SiGe) technology enables us to achieve the high bandwidth speeds and power efficiencies that our customers require to meet their ever-increasing data demands.”
“Since our earliest days, Ayar Labs and GlobalFoundries have partnered on the development of GF Fotonix, from incorporating our PDK requirements and process optimizations to demonstrating the first working silicon on the platform,” says Charles Wuischpard, CEO, Ayar Labs. “The combination of our leading monolithic electronic/photonic solution and GF Fotonix unlocks a tremendous market opportunity for chip-to-chip optical I/O and sets the stage for us to deliver substantial volume shipments by year end.”
“Silicon photonics is now recognized as a necessary technology for the datacenter revolution, and our leading semiconductor manufacturing technology platform accelerates adoption into the mainstream,” said Amir Faintuch, senior vice president and general manager of Compute and Wired Infrastructure at GF. “GF Fotonix is a feature-rich platform that addresses the most urgent, complex and difficult challenges in areas such as optical networking, super and quantum computing, fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), 5G networks, aeronautics and defense.”
Infinera intros ICE-XR Pluggables and Open Optical toolkit
Infinera expects to begin trials later this year of its first suite of intelligent coherent optical pluggable solutions capable of supporting both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint applications. Commercial availability of the Infinera ICE-XR pluggable is anticipated in the first half of 2023. The company also introduced its Open Optical Toolkit, a new suite of open optical automation solutions designed to enable network operators to leverage the power of coherent optical technology in any platform across any optical infrastructure.
Infinera says its ICE-XR pluggables will enable dramatic network simplification across a range of topologies including regional to metro, DCI, and access, yielding as much as 70% reduction in network costs.
With 0 dBm launch power and low out-of-band noise, ICE-XR pluggables are optimized for seamless deployment over a wide variety of network infrastructures, including colorless/directionless fixed- and flexible-grid ROADM networks. Infinera’s ICE-XR also introduces a new level of intelligence into a pluggable solution, integrating system-level functionality onto a pluggable. This combination enables end-to-end visibility, accelerated service activation, and traditional optical system-level control even when deployed in non-traditional optical networking equipment.
Infinera’s Open Optical Toolkit is a suite of automation solutions that enable network operators to maintain a seamless operational experience as optical networks become increasingly open and heterogenous, with coherent optical engines from numerous suppliers deployed in a wider variety of network platforms such as routers, switches, compute platforms, and mobile radios. The Open Optical Toolkit includes Open Wave Manager (OWM), a modular software application designed to enable network operators to seamlessly deploy and operate coherent optical engines from any supplier over any optical line system. OWM will expand the choices for network operators, ensuring that they can choose from the best-in-class coherent optical technology to meet their specific application needs.
Infinera’s Open Optical Toolkit also includes Infinera’s Intelligent Pluggables Manager (IPM). IPM is part of an open and collaborative approach to the management of coherent pluggable optics defined by the Open XR Forum. This approach decouples the management of optical engines from the host platform, ensuring a seamless operational experience with any optical engine deployed in any host platform. This approach also promotes independent innovation cycles between the host platform and the optical engine.
“Infinera’s suite of vertically integrated ICE-XR intelligent coherent pluggables and Open Optical Toolkit offer network operators both unique networking capabilities and innovative software applications to dramatically simplify their network and enable seamless operation,” said Tom Burns, General Manager of Optical Modules & Coherent Solutions Group at Infinera. “This type of holistic approach to coherent optical networking will play a critical role in enabling our customers to efficiently roll out next-generation services including 5G, enhanced broadband, and cloud-based services.”
Infinera’s Open Optical Toolkit’s suite of automation solutions is planned to be generally available the second half of the year.
Microsoft to build data center in Hyderabad
Microsoft plans to locate its latest datacenter region in Hyderabad, Telangana - its fourth in India.
Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India said, “Cloud services are poised to play a critical role in reimagining the future of business and governance and enabling overall inclusion in the country. The new datacenter will augment Microsoft’s cloud capabilities and capacity to support those working across the country. It will also support new entrepreneurial opportunities while meeting critical security and compliance needs. The new datacenter region is a testament to our mission to empower the people and organizations of India to achieve more. We are pleased to be collaborating with the Government of Telangana on this major milestone and we deeply appreciate their support.”
https://news.microsoft.com/en-in/microsoft-india-hyderabad-data-center-region-intent/
Kentik: Cogent disconnects from Russia
Cogent Communications has begun disconnecting Russian operators from its Internet backbone service.
Cogent's customers are believed to include Rostelecom, MegaFon, Veon and Yandex, amongst others.
Kentik, which provides Internet traffic monitoring servicesm said the he loss of Cogent would leave Rostelecom with several other options for transit including Vodafone (AS1273), Telecom Italia Sparkle (AS6762), Lumen (AS3356), and Arelion (formerly Telia, AS1299).
https://www.kentik.com/blog/cogent-disconnects-from-russia/
Critical Infrastructure Defense Project follows “Shields Up” advisory
Cloudflare, CrowdStrike, and Ping Identity announced a Critical Infrastructure Defense Project to provide free cybersecurity services to particularly vulnerable industries during this time of heightened risk.
This project is designed to enhance defenses against key areas of enterprise risk and eligible organizations will have access to the full suite of Cloudflare Zero Trust solutions, endpoint protection, and intelligence services from CrowdStrike, and Zero Trust identity solutions from Ping Identity. This project, in collaboration with core partners across the public sector, will also offer an easy-to-follow roadmap that businesses in any industry can use to implement step-by-step security measures to defend themselves from cyberattack.
In February 2022, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) issued a ‘Shields Up’ advisory to urge all U.S. businesses to take steps to prepare for potentially disruptive cyber activity in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As the Sunburst attack, which triggered a large-scale supply chain incident affecting thousands of organizations, and Colonial Pipeline incident, resulting in the shut down of its pipeline for five days, have demonstrated, attacks on U.S. infrastructure can have widespread impact on businesses and citizens alike.
“We rely on our infrastructure to power our homes, to provide access to water and basic necessities, and to maintain critical access to healthcare. That’s why it’s more important than ever for the security industry to band together and ensure that our most critical industries are protected and prepared,” said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. “We are honored to come together with CrowdStrike and Ping Identity during this time of heightened security risk to protect our nation’s most vulnerable infrastructure.”
“This is first and foremost a public service initiative to secure the endpoints and data of some of the most important critical infrastructure entities in the country,” said George Kurtz, CEO and co-founder of CrowdStrike. “We are in a position to help and we want to do all we can. Today, CrowdStrike is offering two no-cost capabilities in endpoint protection and intelligence services to help critical organizations in the U.S. better protect themselves against evolving threats and ensure critical functions for Americans are not disrupted.”
EFFECT Photonics and Jabil Photonics target QSFP-DD
EFFECT Photonics and Jabil Photonics agreed to co-develop a next generation of coherent QSFP-DD optical modules.
EFFECT Photonics will make available its System-on-Chip optical technology and Jabil will leverage its track record of manufacturing coherent modules in very large quantities with extensive sourcing capabilities.
“One of the ambitions we have as an organization is to build strong partnerships to increase our ability to develop and deliver cutting-edge solutions for our customers,” said Harald Graber, CCO at EFFECT Photonics. “Hyperscalers are at the forefront of dealing with this seemingly never-ending growth in Internet traffic. This co-development with Jabil allows us to jointly innovate to get affordable, best-in-class solutions to market faster. Jabil will allow us to deliver reliably at a far greater scale to our global customer base.”
“Pluggable coherent transceivers are at the heart of a paradigm shift, enabling new open architectures through disaggregation of switches, transceivers and optical line systems that are needed for the massive surge in data driven by cloud and 5G applications,” said Stefano Schiavoni, vice president and GM of Jabil’s Photonics business unit. “Jabil Photonics is a key player in coherent pluggable transceivers with our own portfolio and proven capabilities to help build innovative solutions and achieve volume production quickly. We’re excited to add Effect Photonics to our partner ecosystem.”
Ciena reports revenue of $844M
Ciena reported revenue of $844.4 million for its first fiscal quarter ended January 29, 2022 as compared to $757.1 million for the fiscal first quarter 2021.
Ciena's GAAP net income for the fiscal first quarter 2022 was $45.8 million, or $0.29 per diluted common share, which compares to a GAAP net income of $55.3 million, or $0.35 per diluted common share, for the fiscal first quarter 2021. Ciena's adjusted (non-GAAP) net income for the fiscal first quarter 2022 was $72.6 million, or $0.47 per diluted common share, which compares to an adjusted (non-GAAP) net income of $81.3 million, or $0.52 per diluted common share, for the fiscal first quarter 2021.
“First quarter revenue grew more than 10% year-over-year and continued broad-based demand drove very strong orders growth in the quarter, providing us additional visibility for the fiscal year," said Gary Smith, president and CEO of Ciena. "We expect our strategic investments to drive a significant increase in supply chain capacity in the second half, and therefore remain confident in our ability to address demand and achieve the strong revenue growth we expect for the fiscal year.”
On an investor call, Ciena executives announced a suspension of operations in Russia and cited specific supply chain disruptions that happened late in its first quarter and which occurred within an already challenged logistics environment that was worsened by the Omicron surge. Ciena said it has subsequently managed through those specific disruptions that occurred in Q1 and that long-term secular demand is very strong, driven by the acceleration of cloud adoption and traffic growth and the desire to get higher capacity and more bandwidth closer to the end user.
Freedom Photonics and Vanguard Automation develop chip-scale interconnects
Freedom Photonics has deployed Vanguard Automation’s SONATA and REPRISE 1000 systems at its facilities in Santa Barbara, CA. The two systems combined construct a fully automated photonic integration and packaging solution built upon 3D nano-print technology, and enable the fabrication of low loss optical subsystem interconnects commonly known as Photonic Wire Bonds (PWBs). Freedom Photonics added Photonic Wire Bonding to its 21,000 square foot facility in Santa Barbara, where Freedom manufactures a wide range of photonic devices, including lasers, photodiodes, and photonic integrated circuits (PICs). PWB technology adds a significant capability in optical subassembly manufacturing. Freedom will also offer PWBs as a manufacturing service.
Vanguard Automation augments 3D nano-print technology to create solutions for photonic packaging. The technology uses a 2-photon lithography process which creates waveguide optical interconnects between two components (PWBs), or fabricates facet attached micro-lenses (FAML) to couple light. In the case of PWBs, a cladding material adds an indexed filler which ensures single mode operation and protection against moisture and mechanical forces. In order to execute these processes in an automated manner in manufacturing, Vanguard Automation has developed two systems, the vanguard SONATA and the vanguard REPRISE. The SONATA is a lithography unit responsible for structuring the PWBs and FAMLs, whereas the REPRISE manages all pre- and post-processing steps including dispensing, removal of an unexposed resin, cleansing, and encapsulation of the bonds. Vanguard Automation also offers comprehensive process control and management software, including its software suite for design and fabrication of PWBs and FAMLs.
“We are extremely excited to bring Vanguard Automation’ technology in-house,” said Dr. Milan Mashanovitch, Chief Executive Officer of Freedom Photonics. “PWB will be a fundamental packaging technology for next generation highly integrated photonic subassemblies offering not only compact form factors but also low optical loss.”
“We are pleased to be working with Freedom Photonics to enable photonic packaging and integration solutions,” said Thorsten Mayer, CEO of Vanguard Automation. “Freedom Photonics’ engineering capabilities and manufacturing infrastructure make it an ideal partner for prototyping and lower-volume manufacturing.”
Source Photonics launches 50G PAM4 SFP56 transceivers
Source Photonics is demonstrating its 50G SFP56 products with industry partners at this week's OFC 2022 in San Diego.
Source Photonics' 50G PAM4 SFP56 product portfolio for 5G fronthaul networks levergages in-house vertically integrated optics and ICs. The modules support interoperability with previous generations of 25G SFP28 and 10G SFP+ optical transceivers. Both modules comply with the corresponding 50GBASE-R specifications as defined in the IEEE standards and offer 50G PAM4 electrical and optical interfaces.
The company notes that when the 5G spectrum bandwidth exceeds 100M, one base station requires 6x 25Gb/s eCPRI interfaces and a total of 12x 25Gb/s SFP28 optical modules. The 50G SFP56 achieves 50% port savings by upgrading the rate of one transceiver to 50Gb/s, creating flexibility for further improvement of wireless forward bandwidth.
To meet the most pressing bandwidth requirements of global customers, Source Photonics is one of the first in the world to introduce 50G LR and FR PAM4 SFP56 optical modules, which support 10km and 2km respectively. The product meets the range of industrial temperature applications with power consumption as low as 1.5W. This series of products use the 25G DFB laser developed in house by Source Photonics to provide customers with low power consumption, short latency, and cost-effective transceiver solutions for 5G fronthaul networks.
Source Photonics has conducted in-depth cooperation with the world's leading 5G equipment manufacturers, and the qualification is progressing smoothly. The 50G LR SFP56 and 50G FR SFP56 are the most urgent general-purpose applications today.
The development of 50G Bidi SFP56, 50G WDM SFP56 and other related products has also been launched, which will provide customers with more diversified, more flexible, and more cost-effective products.
Sunday, March 6, 2022
OFCnet to showcase 34Tbps gateway
OFC, in collaboration with the operator of California's research and education network CENIC, is launching OFCnet, a live high-speed fiber path connecting CENIC's facility in San Diego to the San Diego Convention Center, where OFC is being held 06-10 March 2022.
"CENIC is thrilled to be able to help facilitate this dedicated high-capacity infrastructure to drive adoption and innovation in optical networking technology," said CENIC's Vice President of Engineering and Security Tony Nguyen. "It is through private and public collaborative projects like this that our research and education communities are empowered to accelerate discovery in solving our toughest challenges."
"OFCnet presents a game-changing opportunity for the research and education (R&E) community to participate in OFC," said OFC General Chairs Shinji Matsuo, David Plant and Jun Shan Wey. "This is just the beginning of an incredible collaboration with industry, government and academia to provide a platform for data sharing and discoveries that are driving innovation around the world."
"Pushing boundaries is what the OFC community does so well, and we're proud to provide the fiber backbone that will connect CENIC's facility and the San Diego Convention Center, making OFCnet at OFC a reality," said Ed Morche, president of Lumen's North American Enterprise and Public Sector. "CENIC's high speed network is built on the Lumen optical fiber and colocation infrastructure to quickly and securely connect academia, government and industry to drive innovation. These ultra-fast connections are designed to increase scientific collaboration among diverse organizations across the U.S."
