Lumentum’s CTO discusses photonic trends

CTO interviews part 2: Brandon Collings

• The importance of moving to parallel channels will only increase given the continual growth in bandwidth.
• Lumentum's integration of NeoPhotonics’ engineers and products has been completed.
• The use of coherent techniques continues to grow, which is why Lumentum acquired the telecom transmission product lines and staff of IPG Photonics.

Brandon Collings has been a CTO for over 13 years; first as CTO of the commercial optical products (CCOP) business within JDSU and then CTO of Lumentum when it spun out in 2015. In that time, the scope of his work has continued to grow.

Brandon Collings

"It has changed quite significantly given what Lumentum is engaging in," he says. "My role spans the entire company; I'm engaged in a lot of areas well beyond communications."

A decade ago, the main focus was telecom and datacom. Now Lumentum also addresses commercial lasers, 3D sensing, and, increasingly, automotive lidar.

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Lumentum bulks up with NeoPhotonics buy

Lumentum is to acquire fellow component and module specialist, NeoPhotonics, for $918 million.

The deal will expand Lumentum’s optical transmission product line, broadening its component portfolio and boosting its high-end coherent line-side product offerings.

Vladimir Kozlov

Gaining NeoPhotonics' 400-gigabit coherent offerings will enable Lumentum to better compete with Cisco and Marvell. Lumentum will also gain a talented team of photonics experts as it looks to address new opportunities.

Alan Lowe, Lumentum’s president and CEO, stressed the importance of this collective optical expertise.

Speaking on the call announcing the agreement, Lowe said the expanded know-how would benefit Lumentum’s traditional markets and accelerate its entrance into other, newer markets.

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400-gigabit coherent modules finally hit their stride

NeoPhotonics discusses 400-gigabit coherent modules, the move to 130-gigabaud symbol-rate optical components and a company tunable laser milestone.

NeoPhotonics’ 400ZR pluggable optical modules are now available and will ship in volume from the autumn.

“The QSFP-DD and OSFP 400ZR [optical modules] have passed qualification tests and we are engaged in numerous customer qualifications around the world,” says Ferris Lipscomb, vice president of marketing at NeoPhotonics.

Ferris Lipscomb

400ZR modules implement the OIF’s 400-gigabit standard to connect directly equipment in data centres up to 120km apart without needing separate dedicated dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) optical transport equipment. The first 400ZR modules will be used by data centre operators.

But coherent pluggables support longer-reach modes. These may be interoperable if implementing the OpenZR+ multi-source agreement (MSA) or when delivering custom optical performance that are referred to as ZR+ modules.

NeoPhotonics has reported that its 400-gigabit coherent QSFP-DD when operated as a ZR+ module can achieve an 800km reach.

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100-gigabaud optics usher in the era of terabit transmissions

•  NeoPhotonics has unveiled a coherent modulator and receiver that operate at over 100 gigabaud.

Telecom operators are in a continual battle to improve the economics of their optical transport networks to keep pace with the relentless growth of IP traffic.

One approach is to increase the symbol rate used for optical transmission. By operating at a higher baud rate, more data can be carried on an optical wavelength.

Ferris Lipscomb

Alternatively, a higher baud rate allows a simpler modulation scheme to be used, sending the same amount of data over greater distances. That is because the fewer constellation points of the simpler modulation scheme help data recovery at the receiver.

NeoPhotonics has detailed two optical components - a coherent driver-modulator and an intradyne coherent receiver (micro-ICR) - that operate at over 100 gigabaud (GBd). The symbol rate suits 800-gigabit systems and can enable one-terabit transmissions.

NeoPhotonics’ coherent devices were announced to coincide with the ECOC 2020 show.

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NeoPhotonics talks 400ZR, 600G, 800G and Lidar

Many companies that prepared for the OFC show in March had their plans thwarted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

OFC did take place in San Diego despite all the hardships. But company withdrawals meant technology demonstrations were scrapped, press releases went unissued and stories left untold.

Ferris Lipscomb

Intel and Ranovus, for example, planned to fanfare their first co-packaged optics designs at OFC. Demonstrations to interested parties did occur but at their offices instead.

Equally, 800-gigabit coherent technologies from Ciena and Infinera would have been showcased at the show, as would industry organisations' interoperability demonstrations. 

NeoPhotonics announced in January that it was sampling 400-gigabit coherent pluggable offerings in the CFP2 and OSFP form factors.

At OFC it was to show a QSFP-DD module implementing the 400ZR OIF coherent standard, thereby completing its 400-gigabit coherent portfolio. 

“A lot of the planned demos involved inter-operation in customer switches with other modules,” says Ferris Lipscomb, vice president of marketing at NeoPhotonics. “Many of these demos are now being done in San Jose [its HQ in California] for customers coming individually.”

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NeoPhotonics’ growing 400G coherent pluggable portfolio

Part 2: 400-gigabit coherent pluggables 

NeoPhotonics has unveiled its first two 400-gigabit coherent pluggable modules that support the OIF’s 400ZR coherent standard and extended ZR+ modes. 

Ferris LipscombThe company has delivered samples of its ClearLight CFP2-DCO module for trials. The CFP2-DCO supports 400ZR, metro, and long-haul optional transmissions. 

NeoPhotonics has also delivered to a hyperscaler the first samples of a 400-gigabit OSFP pluggable that supports 400ZR and 400ZR+. 

Both modules use Inphi’s latest Canopus 7nm CMOS coherent digital signal processor (DSP) chip. 

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Data centre interconnect drives coherent

• NeoPhotonics announced at OFC a high-speed modulator and intradyne coherent receiver (ICR) that support an 800-gigabit wavelength

• It also announced limited availability of its nano integrable tunable laser assembly (nano-ITLA)  and demonstrated its pico-ITLA, an even more compact silicon photonics-based laser assembly

• The company also showcased a CFP2-DCO pluggable

NeoPhotonics unveiled several coherent optical transmission technologies at the OFC conference and exhibition held in San Diego last month.

Ferris Lipscomb“There are two [industry] thrusts going on right now: 400ZR and data centre interconnect pizza boxes going to even higher gigabits per wavelengths,” says Ferris Lipscomb, vice president of marketing at NeoPhotonics.

The 400ZR is an interoperable 400-gigabit coherent interface developed by the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF).

Optical module makers are developing 400ZR solutions that fit within the client-side QSFP-DD and OSFP pluggable form factors, first samples of which are expected by year-end.

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