Some fascinating possibilities in this research testing presented in a paper this week at the 2022 European Conference on Optical Communications in Switzerland: Lightwave Logic, Polariton Technologies and ETH Zurich successfully demonstrated a 250 GHz, super-high bandwidth electro-optical-electrical (EOE) link combining electro-optic polymers and graphene, with potential implications for fiber communications. The link, the partners said, was “demonstrated by ETH Zurich and uses Polariton’s high-speed plasmonic modulators containing Lightwave’s proprietary Perkanamine chromophores and ETH Zurich’s high-speed graphene photodetectors.”
“The EOE link achieved a world record and unprecedented 250 GHz 3dB bandwidth,” the companies said in a release.
“Next generation ultra-high-capacity interconnects require compact, ultra-fast modulators on the transmission end and ultra-fast photodetectors on the receiving end,” said Dr. Michael Lebby, CEO of Lightwave Logic. “This incredible result demonstrates that our electro-optic polymers will be instrumental not only for next-generation high-capacity interconnects, but for the more advanced and faster links that will be required for succeeding generations. This is an optical link that utilizes devices with extremely high bandwidths, and the plasmonic demonstration shows that hybrid technologies such as electro-optic polymers and graphene together form an important technology platform for volume scalability using large silicon foundries for mass commercialization. … The plasmonic-to-plasmonic optical link opens flexible integration possibilities that we have only imagined before. This shows that plasmonic devices now complete an ultra-high frequency toolbox for a variety of applications in fiber communications – something we need to add to our technology roadmaps going forward,” Lebby added.
Dr. Wolfgang Heni, Co-CTO at Polariton, said that the demonstration “provides a peek into the future of super high-capacity optical networking. This showcases the opportunities of integrating advanced materials with established photonic platforms such as silicon photonics.”
Meanwhile, at the same conference, Keysight Technologies and Nokia, along with other research partners, demonstrated a 260 GBaud ultra-high-speed optical signal transmission over 100 kilometers of standard single-mode fiber. The previous record was 220 GBaud, Keysight noted.
“The continued proliferation of AI requires new levels of server and network performance that must scale computing resources within reasonable energy bounds. Higher data rates and new modulation formats will be among the enabling technologies for the industry,” said Dr. Joachim Peerlings, VP of network and data center solutions at Keysight.
Keysight also this week unveiled its new M8199B arbitrary waveform generator, which it says provides a high-performance signal source for developing designs that utilize multi-level modulation formats “at well beyond 160 GBaud.”
In other test news:
–Synopsys has added prototyping capabilities to its ZeBu EP1 emulation system, saying that this is the first such unified hardware system for system-on-chip (SoC) emulation and prototyping.
“As software content and hardware complexity keep growing, SoC design teams are consistently looking for more and faster emulation and prototyping capacity to achieve their hardware verification and software development goals,” said Rohit Vora, SVP of R&D in Synopsys’ systems design group. “The Synopsys ZeBu EP1 system represents a major innovation in verification hardware by providing a single system supporting both emulation and prototyping with higher performance and faster emulation compile time. With Synopsys ZeBu EP1 system, industry-leading companies have achieved 19-MHz emulation and 100-MHz prototyping clock performance, enabling them to run large amounts of software pre-silicon and accelerate project schedules.”
–Tektronix and Anritsu have collaborated on a new PCI Express (PCIe) 6.0 transmitter and receiver test solution. The partners said that PCIe is used as a “de-factor standard” in data centers and in cloud and AI applications, but that “receiver validation is notoriously difficult due to the sensitivity of calibrating the stressed eye signal across a high loss channel.” The new test solution, they added, has a more intuitive user interface and faster, high-quality measurements.
–Ligado Networks has cancelled plans to begin a 5G trial network that would have operated in northern Virginia and was expected to begin operations shortly, due to ongoing disputes over the impact its operations will have on Department of Defense GPS receivers. Ligado had planned to begin operations in airwaves at 1526–1536 MHz by September 30, according to a status update that it filed with the Federal Communications Commission earlier this year. In a letter to the FCC from last week, however, Ligado said that “it is not intending to move forward with its trial deployment in northern Virginia. Ligado has reached this decision to allow time for the company’s discussions with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, acting in its statutory role on behalf of the Executive Branch, to resolve in a fair and reasonable manner issues relating to the government’s ongoing use of Ligado’s terrestrial spectrum.” Full story here.
