Japanese scientists have recently developed a new distributed feedback (DFB) laser that has shown it can achieve data transfer speeds of 200 Gb/s at a range of 10 kilometers. This research could advance network technology and allow Internet data centers to process data at faster speeds.
Kazuki Nishimura, Optical Engineer, Data Communication Business Unit, Lumentum Japan, will present this technology at the Optical Fiber Communications Conference (OFC), March 5-9, 2023 in San Diego, California, USA. new research.
Nishimura said: “This research contributes to the development of next-generation 800G and 1.6T Ethernet data centers. In particular, through this new technology, it has been shown that electroabsorption modulators integrating distributed feedback (EA-DFB) lasers can use conventional PAM4 (Pulse Amplitude Modulation) technology to achieve 10 km transmission, which is currently defined as a simple Intensity Modulation Direct Detection (IM/DD) scheme”.
With the continuous increase of communication traffic, technologies such as 800G and 1.6T Ethernet have attracted more and more attention. The current PAM4 technology used for 2 km 400G transmission can be considered for 800G networks, but new technologies need to be developed to expand data transmission capabilities over longer distances between data center areas or campuses.
During this development, the researchers developed a lumped electrode electroabsorption (EA) modulator DFB laser to achieve longer distances. They first demonstrated 5-km transmission of 225-Gb/s PAM4 using the coarse wavelength-division multiplexing (CWDM) band using the new laser at 50°C operation. The researchers next used the laser to transmit 225-Gb/s PAM4 at 1293.5 nm for 10 kilometers.
In all experiments, the new lasers exhibited low emitter and dispersive eye closure quaternion (TDECQ) values, indicating reliable emitter performance. The researchers say their results demonstrate the potential of lumped electrode EA-DFB lasers as light sources for 800G Ethernet technology, enabling high-speed data transmission up to 10 km. This research can also be used for longer reach 5 km CWDM4 applications.
