Aug 12 2008
Bookham, Inc. has completed tier 1 customer demonstrations of its 40Gb/s ODQPSK tunable transmitter capability. The tunable transmitter assembly (TTA) is designed to meet price points that will enable cost-effective deployment of 40Gb/s transmission in Metro networks. The TTA has been demonstrated in the Bookham Caswell, UK, facility using cascaded DWDM nodes to reproduce real network conditions, and will be sampled into customer premises next month.
The TTA is underpinned by a single gold box co-packaging an indium phosphide Mach Zehnder modulator (InP MZ), measuring less than 10mm and believed to be the industry's smallest 40Gb/s modulator, and the LambdaFLEX(TM) DSDBR tunable laser. The TTA, implementing all required control circuitry including an OIF standard tunable laser interface, measures just 74mm x 39mm x 8.4mm, and is the first building block towards the Bookham 40Gb/s transponder.
The Bookham 40Gb/s portfolio of products utilizes the Optical Differential Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (ODQPSK) modulation scheme for 40Gb/s. The InP technology favoured by Bookham is well suited for such formats where integration of several modulators onto a single chip is a key enabler for space and cost reduction.
"These successful network simulation tests with our key customers are a big step forward for the Bookham 40Gb/s program, confirming the superior optical performance of ODQPSK modulation and its excellent adaptability to multiple fiber types," said PLM Director, Adam Price. "Through our vertical integration model we are proving that InP technology established by Bookham can provide the high performance needed for line side 40Gb/s optical networks, without the cost, power and size issues linked to less integrated transmitter and decoder solutions. This performance is targeted to be delivered at a price point that will see us create a real market for 40Gb/s in the Metro/Regional network, in line with service providers requirements.
"We believe our 40Gb/s TTA will be an economically compelling product for the players in this space," concluded Price.