Recent Progress with Next Generation High-Speed Ethernet Optical Device Technology

Abstract

Ethernet has become an indispensable technology for communications, and has come into use for many applications. At the IEEE, high-speed standardization has been discussed and has seen the adoption of new technologies such as multi-level modulation formats, high baud rate modulation and dense wave length division multiplexing. The MSA transceiver form factor has also been discussed following IEEE standardization. Optical devices such as TOSA and ROSA have been required to become more compact and higher-speed, because each transceiver form factor has to be miniaturized for high-density construction. We introduce the technologies for realizing 100GbE and those applicable to 400GbE. We also discuss future packages for optical devices. There are many similarities between optical device packages and electrical device packages, and we predict that optical device packages will follow the trends seen in electrical devices. But there are also differences between optical and electrical devices. It is necessary to utilize new technology for specific optical issues to employ advanced electrical packaging and catch up the trends.