Apogee Photonics And Vitesse Offer Optical Transmission Performance For 10 Gbps Optical Module OEMs

Allentown, PA and Camarillo, CA -- Apogee Photonics and Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. announced a joint reference design that extends 10 Gbps transceiver performance to an industrial temperature range. The new reference design allows customers to quickly and confidently deploy high-speed optical links in the most demanding environmental conditions, including the outside plant associated with PON backhaul applications, while maintaining exceptional XFP transceiver SONET eye mask margins of 20 percent average over case temperatures ranging from minus 40 degrees C to +85 degrees C.

"We are pleased with the performance of the combination of the Apogee EML and Vitesse driver IC under extreme temperature conditions," commented Dr. Rang-Chen Yu, vice president of Datacom/Telecom PLG at Fiberxon Inc., one of the world's leading suppliers of opto-electronic components, modules, and subsystems for communication networks. "Our system OEM customers are increasingly deploying high-speed optical broadband solutions closer to customer premises, and require environmentally hardened high-speed optical transmission performance. Our i-temp 10G XFP transceiver product is an excellent fit to meet their demanding requirements."

The joint reference design solution includes Vitesse's XFP PRO PCB layout with its VSC7982 Driver IC and the Apogee Photonics 10T3081 EML TOSA. The VSC7982 supports case temperatures up to 100 degrees C and the 10T3081 up to 95 degrees C TOSA case temperature. Industrial XFP solutions using the above combination, together with the Vitesse VSC8239 dual signal conditioner and VSC7978 transimpedance amplifier IC, achieve less than 2.5W total power consumption.

The Apogee Photonics 10T3081 EML is built using the company's patented Asymmetric TwinGuide technology, a scalable platform for monolithic photonic integration, enabling uncooled EML manufacturing with high chip and TOSA yields and lower cost than competing uncooled DML platforms. The Apogee Photonics 1310 nm EML platform also provides industry-leading reliability in an uncooled 10 Gbps laser source.

"The Vitesse XFP PRO chipset was designed and characterized to support the natural progression to industrial temperature range operation. By working closely with Apogee Photonics we have been able to offer customers a solution that meets the rising performance demands of extended temperature 10 km modules," said Richard Interrante, manager of applications engineering for the Networks Products Division at Vitesse.

Aaron Bond, vice president of Marketing and Business Development at Apogee Photonics, said, "Customer demand for industrial temperature range products is growing and is a logical next step in our product roadmap. With the new reference design, customers can now upgrade their modules to support industrial temperatures, without altering existing designs based on the Vitesse chipset and Apogee Photonics uncooled 1310 nm EML."

The Vitesse VSC7982 XFP PRO driver is in production and available now, along with an evaluation board and the reference design with the Apogee Photonics 10T3081 TOSA. The Apogee Photonics 10T3081 TOSA with LC-receptacle is sampling now and will be generally available in commercial quantities in the fourth quarter of 2005. Apogee Photonics is offering the TOSA in a Telcordia-qualified, low-cost, TO-41 based package that will also be available in a RoHS compliant option.

A joint white paper is available through the Vitesse Web site XFP Technology Center that details the SONET and 10 GbE data over temperature measurements taken with the driver and TOSA solution. Both Apogee Photonics and Vitesse will be exhibiting at the China International Optoelectronic Exposition (CIOE) in Shenzhen, China.

SOURCE: Vitesse Semiconductor