Cube Optics touts LAN WDM grid mux for multi-wavelength 100G transceivers

JULY 10, 2008 -- Cube Optics (search for Cube Optics) says it has successfully manufactured what it claims are the world's first LAN WDM grid passive optical multiplexers.

Faced with constantly increasing bandwidth in LAN, SAN, and Metro applications, network operators, data centers, enterprises, and ISPs are demanding higher speed optical interfaces. To meet those needs, the IEEE High Speed Study Group is in the process of setting new standards for 100-Gbit/sec fiber-optic transceivers.

At high data rates, a serial transport even over relatively short distances (10- to 40-km) is not possible with current electronics; the transceivers will need to optically multiplex several lower bit streams. The new standard for pluggable transceivers is anticipated to multiplex 4 times 25 Gbits/sec optically to form a 100-Gbit/sec transmission. To enable the integration of four laser diodes, four PIN detectors with the corresponding multiplexers and demultiplexers into a space-constrained pluggable transceiver, miniaturized multiplexers are the enabling factor. The wavelengths that will be used are summarized as the LAN WDM grid, an 800-GHz grid in the 1310-nm band.

Cube Optics AG says it has now built the first multiplexers in the so-called "zig-zag" direct-bounce design, which enables the needed miniaturized size and the 800-GHz LAN WDM grid. It features 400-GHz pass bands for the center wavelengths of 1295.56 / 1300.05 /1304.58 and 1309.14 nm. The insertion loss does not exceed 1.5 dB, while adjacent channel isolation is above 30dB.

According to CUBO, this design is directly transferable from the existing ITU standardized CWDM grid to the much narrower LAN WDM.

"The design, set-up, and assembly of the first LAN WDM grid muxes was realized in only eight weeks, and we are very happy that already at the first try we could prove an outstanding performance," contends Dr. Thomas Paatzsch, Cube Optics' COO.

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