Kaiam Shows 40G TOSA/ROSA

NEWARK, Calif. -- Kaiam Corporation, an emerging startup with a breakthrough optical integration technology will have a live demonstration of their QSFP transmitter and receiver optical subassemblies for 40GBASE-LR4 applications at OFC/NFOEC 2011 in Los Angeles. The 4 x 10Gb/s TOSA and ROSA deliver and receive a cumulative 40Gb/s in single mode fiber with a 10km reach. The subassemblies are can be used in QSFP modules for client side of telecommunications equipment and for high bandwidth switches and routers in enterprise networks and datacenters. The Kaiam hybrid integration technology is able to achieve the very high densities needed for such compact transceivers.

As bandwidth needs increase, the requirements for high density and low power consumption become increasingly important, and some form of optical integration is necessary. Monolithic approaches are generally costly to develop, consume expensive semiconductor real-estate, and compromises are made on the performance of the integrated elements. Purely hybrid packages suffer from the tight alignment requirements of single mode optics and relatively poor coupling efficiency between elements. Kaiam uses silicon micromechanics to solve the alignment issues and build photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for any application. The single use micromechanics aligns the optical beams only during assembly and is then permanently locked down. Thus there is no need for control of the coupling during operation. These micromechanically aligned PICs are inexpensive to develop and deliver very high yield in manufacturing since individual elements can be tested prior to assembly. Furthermore, the best technology can be used for each element of the PIC.

John Heanue, Kaiam’s Vice President of Technology Development commented, “The availability of high performance uncooled 1310nm lasers from Opnext has allowed us to develop a QSFP package with wide open RF characteristics and superb high temperature performance. Together with the coupling efficiencies that we obtain with our alignment process, the overall performance is very difficult to match with conventional integrated array or purely hybrid technologies.”

Kaiam Corp.