SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Infinera (Nasdaq: INFN) has demonstrated working photonic integrated circuits (PICs) delivering 400 Gigabits/second (Gb/s) of optical capacity in a single pair of chips using complex modulation formats. The 400G PIC will enable Infinera’s next generation optics to deliver up to 80% power savings over competitor 40 Gb/s wavelength optics based on conventional discrete optical components. Infinera’s 400G PIC will operate over Infinera’s ILS2 line system with 25 Gigahertz (GHz) channel spacing, delivering double the spectral density of competitor systems which operate over 50 GHz spacing.

Infinera’s 400 Gb/s transmit PIC, working in Infinera’s labs today, integrates more than 300 optical functions and enables a reduction in optical component packages from around 70 to just one. The 400G PIC pair marks a new and important landmark in Infinera’s PIC roadmap. It represents a fourfold increase in “bits per chip” over today’s 100 Gb/s Infinera PICs, and a forty-fold increase over chips in today’s competitor systems. Last year at this time, Infinera introduced our industry roadmap for the progress of photonic integration, setting out our goals for a 400 Gb/s PIC in 2009 and a doubling of bandwidth capacity or bits per chip every three years.

The 400 Gb/s PIC will be at the heart of the next generation of Infinera systems. The new PIC integrates ten lasers to deliver ten optical channels, each one operating at 40 Gb/s. The data is encoded using polarization-multiplexed differential quadrature phase-shift keying (PM-DQPSK) modulation, which enables optical performance equivalent to 10 Gb/s systems on today’s fiber plant. The PM-DQPSK modulation format delivers benefits in terms of lower power consumption, greater spectral efficiency, improved optical reach compared to other complex modulation techniques, and greater resistance to impairments like dispersion. Infinera’s modulation approach will enable systems based on 400G PICs to be compatible with Infinera’s 25GHz-spaced ILS2 line system. Infinera’s next generation systems will be designed to enable network operators to scale total fiber capacity to 6.4Tb/s in the C-band, or twice what is possible using conventional 40G WDM systems.

Infinera Corp. (Nasdaq: INFN)