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Infinera unveils new passive PIC platform
By siliconindia
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Thursday, 12 June 2008, 01:39 IST
Sunnyvale: Infinera is introducing two new passive photonic integrated circuits (PICs) with the launch of its ILS2 line system today. Infinera's passive PICs are designed to deliver benefits similar to Infinera�s existing PICs, including greater density of functionality in a smaller space, reduced power consumption, simplified manufacturing, and enhanced reliability. The introduction of these additional PICs should increase the importance and the value of photonic integration as a key enabling technology for service providers facing the growing challenge of meeting escalating bandwidth demand while keeping a grip on network cost.
Infinera's optoelectronic or "active" PICs will continue to sit at the heart of Infinera's DTN system. The active PICs, offering 100 Gigabits/second of DWDM capacity on every Infinera line card, have integrated active devices such as lasers, modulators, and photodiodes. These active PICs are now in their second generation of development and include additional functionality not present on the first generation of active PICs. Future generations of active PICs are planned to scale to higher capacities and to add additional functionality. In March, independent analyst firm Heavy Reading labeled Infinera the world leader in photonic integration technology and estimated Infinera had a four-year lead over the rest of the industry in photonic integration technology.
Infinera's new passive PICs integrate passive devices such as multiplexers, interleavers, variable optical attenuators and waveguides, and play key roles in routing and filtering DWDM wavelengths in the ILS2 system, which enables up to160 DWDM channels on a single fiber.
Infinera's passive PIC technology is based on the use of a proprietary glass, Hydex, which enables a reduction in the size of the planar lightwave circuits (PLCs) on the PICs by roughly 90 percent compared to conventional material technologies. Hydex is manufactured at Infinera�s semiconductor fabrication facility in Annapolis Junction, Maryland, which is also where the passive PICs are produced. Hydex supports waveguides with far tighter bends than conventional PLCs, enabling dense integration of devices on Hydex-based PICs, yielding chips far smaller with significantly more functionality than conventional PLC devices.
