infoTECH Feature

February 01, 2010

Opnext Develops SMT Multiplexer Integrated Circuit for 100Gbps Applications

Opnext said that it has developed ultra-high speed surface mount technology multiplexer integrated circuit for 100Gbps applications.
 
One of the major challenges of increasing 40G production was the manufacturability, quality and performance consistency of the hardware, said Roberto Marcoccia, vice president of R&D for subsystems business unit at Opnext (News - Alert).
 
“This SMT IC eliminates the radio frequency connectors and coaxial cabling, a major source of these volume manufacturing issues,” added Marcoccia.
 
The Silicon Germanium, 0.13, process technology chip was designed in-house. Company officials said the chip was designed to be used inside Opnext’s 40Gbps and 100Gbps transponder modules and subsystems.
 
The 128Gbps multiplexer IC transmits the data in 32Gbps lanes suitable for transmission using the DP-QPSK modulation scheme, as documented in the OIF (News - Alert) 100G ultra long haul DWDM framework, for 100GbE and OTU4 transmission in the wide area network, said company officials.
 
Moreover, the multiplexer IC features Ball Grid Array technology, allowing standard SMT manufacturing processes. Company officials said that this enables higher density transponder designs with ICs mounted directly onto the Printed Circuit Boards.
 
Opnext is a provider of laser technology and high speed optical communications. According to the company, it’s the optical technology partner of choice supplying systems providers and OEMs worldwide with a portfolio of 10G and higher next generation optical products and solutions.
 
Earlier last month, EXFO (News - Alert) Electro-Optical Engineering announced completion of interoperability trials for testing IEEE (News - Alert) compliant 100 gigabit Ethernet optics jointly with Opnext.

Anshu Shrivastava is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anshu’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Erin Harrison
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