Want A Cheap 100G Fiber Link? Think Different! At the IEEE Photonics Society Optical Interconnects meeting this Spring, a laser researcher presented data that indicates that 100G links using one laser and a single fiber are achievable, if you make a few changes in components. Dr. Dennis Deppe, College of Optics and Photonics, University of Central Florida, one of the real experts on VCSELs, made some interesting statements in his talk during a session on VCSEL-based optical interconnects. He noted that new work on VCSELs had achieved bandwidths of 150-200 GHz by making lasers smaller (1.5-2micron diameter) without penalties in output power. This shows, he pointed out, that 100Gb/s links are possible. There is a glitch - the wavelength of a VCSEL is constrained by the physics of the design and materials, so the maximum wavelength is ~1050nm, a wavelength not used in fiber optics. However, were some innovative fiber company to build a special singlemode fiber with about a 7 micron core diameter, this device could be used in a singlemode link. Alternatively, we could use 5 micron singlemode fiber that is currently made for 850nm, mostly used in sensors. The current designs for connectors and other components probably have tolerances that could work with this fiber. Does it make more sense than massive parallel optics or WDM? Maybe.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 01:50:41 +0000
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