10 Gbit/s per channel parallel optical transmitter and receiver modules for high-capacity interconnects

Abstract

We used a channel-pitch conversion structure to suppress inter-channel crosstalk in 4-channel x 10-Gbit/s parallel optical transmitter and receiver modules for use in highcapacity optical interconnection. Error-fkee transmission with the total throughput of 40 GbiUs over 600 m was successfully demonstrated. 1. Introduction The rapidly increasing volume of data tra& requires the use of cost-effective high-capacity optical interconnection between routers and fiber-transmission equipment in a same building. A parallel optical link is one of the best solutions for such very-short-reach (VSR) applications because of its simple and cost-effective configuration. Many vendors have been developing various configurations for parallel optical links made by ribbon fiber, such as 4- and 12-channel x 2.53.125-GbiUs transmitters and receivers (with a total throughput of 12.5-30 Gbitls) [I, 21. In the near future, parallel optical links with a total throughput of 40 GbiUs and beyond will be needed. One way to achieve veIy highcapacity transmission is to use parallel optical interconnection with a transmission speed of 10 GbiUs per channel [3]. A 4channel configuration [4] with 10-GbiUs channels has enabled all-duplex transmission with a simple single 8-channel ribbon-fiber cable. However, strong inter-channel crosstalk at the high per-channel rate makes multi-channel operation at this rate impracticable. To suppress the inter-channel crosstalk in a parallel architecture, we have developed a channel-pitch conversion structure based on a polymer planar lightwave circuit (PLC) platform, and demonstrated 4-channel x 10-GbiUs parallel transmitter and receiver modules [5-71. In this paper. we describe the characteristics of the fabricated transmitter and receiver modules. We also report on our successfid demonstration of error-free 10GbiUskhannel transmission with the total throughput of 40 Gbitk over 600 m (VSR) and an optical power budget of more than 6 dB.