II-VI launches 56Gb/s PAM4 VCSEL arrays for 400GbE transmission

Engineered materials and optoelectronic component maker II-VI Inc of Saxonburg, PA, USA (which provides optical components for datacom transmission) has introduced its 56Gb/s PAM4 vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) arrays for 400 gigabit Ethernet (GbE) short-reach transceivers and active optical cables (AOCs) deployed in data centers.

The availability of Ethernet equipment with greater than 12Tb/s of switching capacity enables hyperscale data centers to accelerate the migration from 100GbE to 400GbE transmission. II-VI’s 8-element VCSEL arrays can be modulated at 56Gb/s using 4-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4) to achieve a combined 400Gb/s over short-reach multi-mode links.

II-VI says that AOCs and transceivers based on VCSELs offer the most cost-effective solution for data-center links that span from 10m to 300m, enabling new applications in consumer electronics to connect ultra-thin HDTV screens to remotely located driver electronics. The demand for VCSELs is expected to accelerate, driven by a growing number of 3D sensing applications in automotive and consumer electronics.

Applications such as augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning promise to be transformative across a broad range of industries. They are enabled by advanced technologies such as sensors that map their surroundings in three dimensions, communications networks that instantly ferry a vast amount of data across large distances and hyperscale datacenters that rapidly compile and analyze massive amounts of data.

In booth #4312 at the Optical Networking and Communication Conference & Exhibition (OFC 2019) in San Diego, CA, USA (5–7 March), II-VI is showcasing new products that enable 5G optical infrastructure, hyperscale data centers, 3D sensing and light detection & ranging (LiDAR).

Tags: II-VI Inc VCSELs AOC

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Visit: www.ii-vi-photonics.com