II‐VI has announced an uncooled 980nm pump laser module in a compact 3-pin micro-format package designed to meet the stringent reliability and power-efficiency requirements of ultra-compact amplification in current and next-generation high-bit-rate optical transceivers.
“The demand for 100G and 200G coherent transceiver modules will grow in volume at a 21 per cent compound annual growth rate from 2016 to 2021,” said Kevin Lefebvre, principal analyst for optical components, Ovum. “The market expansion for both coherent and PAM4 technologies will be assisted through smaller, more efficient and lower power devices such as II-VI’s uncooled micro-pump laser module.”
II-VI’s MLU96Z-series measures only 141mm3 in volume and features an 80µm small-bend radius polarisation-maintaining fibre pigtail to enable optical amplification within small transceiver packages. It also consumes less than 0.5W of power under the typical use conditions and has a maximum operating temperature of 80°C, addressing the critical power consumption requirements of pluggable transceivers.
“The emergence and rapid growth of high bit rate transceivers in pluggable form factors like CFP2, CFP4 and OSFP are driving the need for compact amplification,” said Dr. Sanjai Parthasarathi, vice president, product marketing and strategy, Optical Communications Group. “Compared to our highly successful 8-pin uncooled mini-DIL pump laser, our new 3-pin micro-pump is 75 per cent smaller and achieves a new breakthrough in 980nm pump miniaturization.”
The MLU96Z-series is based on II-VI’s field-proven OC-2 fibre alignment platform, which seen more than two million modules shipped to date. It also relies on II-VI’s market-proven G08 laser chip platform to ensure superior wavelength locking performance, reliability and stability. The MLU96Z-series, together with II-VI’s portfolio of ultra-compact hybrid passives based on II-VI’s micro-optics technology platform, enable low-noise and high-power optical amplification within transceiver form-factors previously unachievable.
Prototype samples of the MLU96Z-series are available now and are expected to be fully qualified in the second half of the calendar year 2017.
II-VI will show the new pump laser module at OFC 2017 on 21–23 March at its booth #2101.