Laser Diodes for 100G CWDM4 Data Center Applications

Santa Clara, CA --- CEL introduces the availability of Renesas Electronics Corporation's new series of semiconductor Laser Diodes, the “NX6375AA Series” into North America. The newly developed direct modulation distributed feedback Laser Diodes support 25 Gbps × four wavelengths operation as the light sources in 100 Gbps optical transceivers that are used for communication between servers and routers installed in data centers.

The NX6375AA Series enables system developers to develop highly reliable high-speed optical transceivers and optical modules that can be implemented in the servers and routers used in data centers. The NX6375AA Series is now available in mass production.

According to Marc Sheade, VP at CEL, “Due to the exploding popularity of cloud computing for the IoT, the scale and processing capacity of data centers that are connected to the internet and handle large amounts of data are expected to increase at an annual rate of 59 percent. In turn, this is driving the demand for increased speeds in the transmission rates of optical transceivers used for communication between the servers and routers in data centers. It is predicted that higher speed 100 Gbps systems will be replacing the current mainstream 40 Gbps systems at an annual growth rate of 75 percent.”

As the communication speed increases, there is a proportional increase in system heat generation, which can cause the system operating state to become unstable. Therefore, achievement of stable operations in high-temperature environments at higher communications speeds has become a major issue for optical transceivers.

Key features of the new NX6375AA Series:

(1) Industry’s first to achieve stable operation at up to 28 Gbps per wavelength over an operating temperature range of Tc = -5°C to 85°C

The new Laser Diodes support 100 Gbps with four wavelengths, but can also support up to 112 Gbps systems. As the Laser Diodes use Renesas' unique embedded structure and adopt aluminum gallium indium arsenic (AlGaInAs) as their materials, the Laser Diodes can achieve a maximum 28 Gbps transmission rate over the wide operating temperature range of Tc = -5°C to 85°C by optimizing the DFB structure.

To enable these Laser Diodes to be safely used in data center environments, Renesas used narrow width selection growth technology for the wafer crystal growth, controlled crystal defects in the active layer, and formed a protective aluminum oxide layer (Renesas’ unique technology). Since aluminum oxidation can be controlled during fabrication, these Laser Diodes achieve the industry leading mean time to failure (MTTF) level of 100,000 hours, assuring a high reliability.

Pricing and Availability

The NX6375AA Series are available now in Mass Production and expected to reach a scale of 100,000 units per month by April 2017. Samples quantities of the NX6375AA Series are priced at $50 per wavelength. For more info, visit http://www.cel.com/NX6375AA