The CFP2 pluggable module gains industry momentum
Finisar and Oclaro unveiled their first CFP2 optical transceiver products at the recent ECOC exhibition in Amsterdam. JDSU also announced that its ONT-100G test equipment now supports the latest 100Gbps module form factor.
Source: Oclaro
The CFP2 is the follow-on module to the CFP, supporting the IEEE 100 Gigabit Ethernet and ITU OTU4 standards. It is half the size of the CFP (see image) and typically consumes half the power. Equipment makers can increase the front-panel port density from four to eight by migrating to the CFP2.
Oclaro also announced a second-generation CFP supporting the 100GBASE-LR4 10km and OTU4 standards that reduces the power consumption from 24W to 16W. The power saving is achieved by replacing a two-chip silicon-germanium 'gearbox' IC with a single CMOS chip. The gearbox translates between the 10x10Gbps electrical interface and the 4x25Gbps signals interfacing to the optics.
The CFP2, in contrast, doesn’t include the gearbox IC.
"One of the advantages of the CFP2 module is we have a 4x25Gbps electrical interface," says Rafik Ward, vice president of marketing at Finisar. "That means that within the CFP2 module we can operate without the gearbox chip." The result is a compact, lower-power design, which is further improved by the use of optical integration.
"That 2.5x faster [interface of the CFP2] equates to about a 6x greater difficulty in signal integrity issues, microwave techniques etc"
Paul Brooks, JDSU
The transmission part of the CFP module typically comprises four externally modulated lasers (EMLs), each individually cooled. The four transmitter optical sub-assemblies (TOSAs) then interface to a four-channel optical multiplexer.
Finisar's CFP2 design uses a single TOSA holding four distributed feedback (DFB) lasers, a shared thermo-electric cooler and the multiplexer. The result of using DFBs and an integrated TOSA is that Finisar's CFP2 consumes just 8W.
Oclaro uses photonic integration on the receiver side, integrating four receiver optical sub-assemblies (ROSAs) as well as the optical demultiplexer into a single design, resulting in a 12W CFP2.
At ECOC, Oclaro demonstrated interoperability between its latest CFP and the CFP2. “It shows that the new modules will talk to existing ones,” says Robert Blum, director of product marketing for Oclaro's photonic components.
Meanwhile JDSU demonstrated its ONT-100G test set that supports the CFP2 and CFP4 MSAs.
"Initially the [test set] applications are focused on those doing the fundamental building blocks [for the 100G CFP2] – chip vendors, optical module vendors, printed circuit board developers," says Paul Brooks, director for JDSU's high speed transport test portfolio. "We will roll out more applications within the year that cover early deployment and production."
The standards-based client-side interfaces is an attractive market for test and measurement companies. For line-side optical transmission, much of the development work is proprietary such that developing a test set to serve vendors' proprietary solutions is not feasible.
The biggest engineering challenge for the CFP2 is its adoption of high-speed 25Gbps electrical interfaces. "The CFP was based on third generation, mature 10 Gig I/O [input/output]," says Brooks. "To get to cost-effective CFP2 [modules] is a very big jump: that 2.5x faster [interface] equates to about a 6x greater difficulty in signal integrity issues, microwave techniques etc."
The company says that what has been holding up the emergence of the CFP2 module has been the 104-pin connector: "The pluggable connector is the big headache," says Brooks. "The expectation is that very soon we should get some early connectors."
The test equipment also supports developers of the higher-density CFP4 module, and other form factors such as the QSFP2.
JDSU will start shipping its CFP2 test equipment in the first quarter of 2013.
Oclaro's second-generation CFP and the CFP2 transceivers are sampling, with volume production starting in early 2013.
Finisar's CFP2 LR4 product will sample in 2012 and enter volume production in 2013.
CyOptics gets $50m worth of new investors and funding
“Volume production scale is very important to having a successful business”
Ed Coringrato, CyOptics
The $50m investment in CyOptics has two elements: the amount paid by new investors in CyOptics to replace existing ones and funding for the company.
“This is different from the years-ago, traditional funding round but not all that different from what is more and more taking place,” says Ed Coringrato, CEO of CyOptics. “Fifty million is a big number but it is a ‘primary/ secondary’: the secondary is tendering out current investors that are choosing to exit, while the primary is what people think of as a traditional investment.” CyOptics has not detailed how the $50m is split between the two.
The funding is needed to bolster the company’s working capital, says Coringrato, despite CyOptics achieving over $100m in revenues in 2010. The money is required because of growth, he says: inventories the company holds are growing, there is more cash outstanding and the company’s payments are also rising.
There is also a need to invest in the company. “For the first time in a long time we are starting to make significant capital investments in our business,” says Coringrato. “We are ramping the fab, the packaging capability, and the assembly and test.”
The company is investing in R&D. At the moment 11 percent of its revenue is invested in R&D and the company wants to approach 13 percent. “That is a challenge in our industry – the investment in R&D is pretty significant,” says Coringrato. “If we are to continue to be significant and have leading-edge products, we must continue to make that investment.”
Manufacturing
CyOptics acquired Triquint Semiconductor’s optoelectronics operations in 2005, and before that Triquint had bought the optoelectronics operations of Agere Systems. This resulted in CyOptics inheriting automated manufacturing facilities and as a result it never felt the need to move manufacturing to the Far East to achieve cost benefits. CyOptics does use some contract manufacturing but its high-end products are made in-house.
“We have been focussed on automated production, cycle-time reduction and yield improvement,” says Coringrato. “The capital investment is to replicate what we have, adding more machines to get more output.”
Markets
CyOptics supplies fibre-to-the-x (FTTx) components to transmit optical subassembly (TOSA) and receive optical subassembly (ROSA) makers, optical transceiver players and board manufacturers. FTTx is an important market for CyOptics as it is a volume driver. “Volume production scale is very important to having a successful business,” says Coringrato.
The company also supplies 2.5 and 10 Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) TOSAs and ROSAs for XFP and SFP pluggable modules for the metro. “We want to play at the higher end as well as that is the where the growth opportunities are and the healthier margins,” says Coringrato.
CyOptics is also active in what it calls high-end product areas.
One area is as a supplier of components for the US defence industry. CyOptics entered the defence market in 2005. “These are custom products designed for specific applications,” says Stefan Rochus, vice president of marketing and business development. These include custom chip fabrication and packaging undertaking for defence contractors that supply the US Department of Defense. “When you look around there are not many companies that can do that,” says Rochus. One example CyOptics cites is a 1480nm pump-laser, part of a fibre-optic gyroscope for use in a satellite.
“We are shipping 40Gbps and 100Gbps coherent receivers into the PM-QPSK market”
Stefan Rochus, CyOptics
The defence market may require long development cycles but CyOptics believes that in the next few years several of its products could lead to reasonable volumes and a better average selling price than telecom components.
Another high-end product segment CyOptics is pursuing is photonic integrated circuits (PICs) using the company's indium-phosphide and planar lightwave circuit expertise.
Rochus says the company has several PIC developments including 10x10Gbps TOSAs and ROSAs as well as emerging 40GBASE-LR4 and coherent detection designs. “We are shipping 40Gbps and 100Gbps coherent receivers into the PM-QPSK market,” says Rochus.
CyOptics’ product portfolio is a good balance between high-volume and high average selling price components, says Rochus.
10x10 MSA
CyOptics is part of the recent 10X10 MSA, the 100Gbps multi-source agreement that includes Google and Brocade. “There is a follow-up high density 10x10Gbps MSA and we will be a member of this as well,” says Rochus. “This [10x10G design] is for short reach, up to 2km, but we are also shipping product for DWDM for an Nx10Gbps TOSA/ROSA solution.”
Why is CyOptics supporting the Google-backed 10x10Gbps MSA?
“The IEEE has only standardised the 100GBASE-SR10 which is 100m and the 100GBASE-LR4 which is 10km, there is a gap in the middle for [a] 2km [interface] which the MSA tries to solve,” says Rochus. “This is particularly important for the larger data centres.”
Rochus claims the 10x10Gbps design is the cheapest solution and that the volumes that will result from growth in the 10 Gigabit PON market will further reduce the component costs used for the interface. Furthermore the interface will be lower power.
That said, CyOptics is backing both interface styles, selling TOSAs and ROSAs for the 10x10Gbps interface and lasers for the 4x25Gbps-styled 100 Gigabit interfaces.
What next?
“The bigger we can get in terms of volume and revenue, the better our financials,” says Coringrato. “Potentially CyOptics is not only attractive for our preferred path, which is an IPO offering at the right time, but also I think it won't discourage others from being interested in us.”
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