JANUARY 22, 2008 -- Inphi Corp. (search for Inphi) today introduced what it claims is the industry's first 25-Gbit/sec Differential Mach-Zehnder Modulator Driver. This product is the first to deliver large differential output voltage and the high data rates required for next-generation 40G Differential Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (search for DQPSK) and 100G optical communications applications, claims the company. The 2514DZ, with a differential output voltage up to 8.0 Vpp and data rates greater than 25 Gbits/sec, works seamlessly with leading differential Mach Zehnder modulators from Fujitsu and Sumitomo Osaka Cement Company (SOCC).
"The 2514DZ leverages Inphi's excellence in analog performance, signal integrity, and design innovation to deliver the best-in-class Differential Mach-Zender Modulator Driver in the market," contends Loi Nguyen, co-founder and vice president of technology for Inphi Corp. "Design teams racing to deploy ultra-high capacity optical networks rely on Inphi's technology leadership to accelerate high-performance products to market."
As the transmission line rate increases from 10 Gbits/sec to 40 Gbits/sec, significant fiber impairments limit how far the signal can be transmitted before regeneration. For standard Non-Return-to-Zero (NRZ) transmission method, these impairments limit the transmission distance to a few kilometers. Differential Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (DQPSK) is emerging as one of the most powerful transmission methods for 40G applications.
Unlike the NRZ transmission method that transmits one bit of data per symbol, DQPSK encodes two bits of data per symbol, which effectively cuts the transmission line rate in half. Thus, 40G DQPSK systems are less sensitive to fiber impairments than other transmission methods at the native 40-Gbit/sec line rate and can transmit 40-Gbit/sec data well over 1,000 kilometers.
Future 100-Gbit/sec systems may rely on even more sophisticated coding schemes to encode four bits of data per symbol so that 100-Gbit/sec data can be transmitted at a line rate of approximately 25 Gbits/sec. Inphi says its 2514DZ has been demonstrated to work beyond the minimum specification of 25 Gbits/sec and is now being used by leading module and OEM customers worldwide in the development of such a system.
The 2514DZ is now available as engineering samples.
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