Systems/Enterprise:
VCSEL MARKET STILL A TARGET FOR
COMPANIES
Recently, the Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSEL) market has
seen
an extensive slump. But despite this weakness, Infineon Technologies Inc. and
Picolight Inc. demonstrated 1310-nm versions of VCSEL arrays here during the
Optical Fiber Communications conference.
Infineon says it will be first to ship a 1310-nm product in volume in an
intelligent (diagnostic logic) version of the Small-Form-Factor Pluggable
(iSFP) transceiver module.
With the succesful production of VCSEL arrays at 1310-nm frequencies, the
technology is taken out of the realm of LAN and storage applications using
850-nm arrays, and directly into medium-reach metropolitan applications
extending to 10 km and beyond.
Infineon already has a line of 1310-nm transceiver modules based on Fabry-
Perot (F-P) and distributed feedback (DFB)lasers, though the VCSEL diode could
replace many such applications in the near future.
The OFC demonstration showcased the VCSEL in a 2.5-Gbit/sec application,
though Martin Schell, director of the fiber optic components business unit at
Infineon, said 10-Gbit products will soon emerge. Cost will be the big
differentiator over edge-emitting laser transceivers, with Infineon aaiming to
cut in half the price of 1310-nm modules using FP or DFB lasers.
Warner Andrews, Picolight's vice president of marketing, said the 1310-nm
product will debut along with a new pluggable module Picolight will unveil
this year as new members of its Extensus line. Like Infineon and Finisar,
Picolight sees growing interest in embedding diagnostic logic inside its
transceiver modules. Picolight has developed a "dashboard" management software
application for diagnostic logic, allowing designers to observe transceiver
behavior in PC applications.
Both Picolight and Infineon continued to promote parallel-bus optics at
OFC.
Picolight along with IBM conducted a 120-Gbit/sec parallel-optic demonstration
in which IBM is examining parallel VCSEL arrays for use in a fiber-based
internal bus for supercomputing applications.
Infineon, meanwhile, is continuing to see traction for its "PAROLI"
parallel
transceiver, in which 12 channels using 850-nm VCSELS are used to implement a
system with a transmission rate as fast as 2.72 Gbits/sec per channel.
At OFC, Infineon introduced PAROLI 2, in which a 10 x 10 parallel array is
embedded in a pluggable connector, increasing aggregate throughput to 3.125
Gbits/sec in each of 12 channels.
Others are pursuing the new firebreak between 850-nm surface-emitting
lasers
and 1310-nm edge-emitters. Emcore Corp. (Albuquerque, N.M.) has developed a
range of 850-nm VCSEL products from its New Mexico facility, but also can
count on new product families of 1310-nm F-P and DFB laser transceivers, from
its acquisition of Ortel Corp.'s laser business.
Emcore product line manager Barry Whitmore said that even though costs
currently favor traditional lasers in 10-Gbit/sec longer-reach applications,
the company has the resources between the original Emcore and newer Ortel
fabs, to explore the viability of 1310-nm VCSEL devices.
Even this year's VCSEL dropout, Bandwith9 Inc., may not be totally down for
the count. Bandwidth9 chief executive Hatch Graham said the fab and
intellectual property remains in company hands, and Bandwidth9 has reduced its
burn rate to only $150,000 a month. The company has retained seven laser
experts, Graham said, and is prepared to ramp up with its concept of tuneable
VCSEL arrays that use a cantilever-arm layer on the wafer to achieve tuning in
VCSEL sources.
|
