40 Gb/s PAM-4 Transmitter IC for Long-Wavelength VCSEL Links
- 20 November 2014
- journal article
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Photonics Technology Letters
- Vol. 27 (4) , 344-347
Abstract
Conventional 850 nm multimode fiber links deployed in warehouse-scale data centers will be limited by modal dispersion beyond 10 Gb/s when covering distances up to 1 km. This can be resolved by opting for a single-mode fiber (SMF), but typically requires the use of power-hungry edge-emitting lasers. We investigate the feasibility of a high-efficiency SMF link by reporting a 0.13 μm SiGe BiCMOS laser diode driver optimized for long-wavelength vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). Bit-error rate experiments at 28 and 40 Gb/s up to 1 km of SMF reveal that four-level pulse amplitude modulation can compete with non-return-to-zero in terms of energy efficiency and scalability. With 9.4 pJ/b, the presented transmitter paves the way for VCSEL-based SMF links in data centers.Keywords
Funding Information
- European Commission within the FP-7 Programme through the Mirage Project
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