CST Global presents paper on high-speed 850nm VCSELs

III-V optoelectronic foundry Compound Semiconductor Technologies Global Ltd (CST Global, a subsidiary of Sivers IMA Holding AB) of Hamilton International Technology Park, Blantyre, near Glasgow, Scotland, UK says that at the VCSEL Day 2017 conference in Cardiff, Wales (8-9 June) project engineer Iain Eddie is presenting a white paper on high-speed 850nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), demonstrating how data transmission rates of 50Gb/s can be achieved.

Now recognized as an essential building block of modern optical communication systems, VCSELs offer a high-bandwidth, power-saving and low-cost solution for the active optical cable (AOC) links used within next-generation, data centers and high-performance computing, says CST Global.

“The VCSELs and GaAs PIN photo-diodes used in AOCs must deliver 50Gb/s or more, to meet anticipated demand,” says Eddie. “We have designed and fabricated new 850nm VCSELs and photo-detectors with low capacitance for high-speed operation,” he adds. “We have then successfully demonstrated how VCSEL aperture size can enable modulation bandwidths of up to 27GHz with data transmission rates of up to 50Gb/s.”

The white paper provides a summary report for the project ADDAPT (Adaptive Data and Power Aware Transceivers for Optical Communications), a Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) funded by the European Commission and running for 42 months from November 2013, which seeks to combine the complementary competences of two universities (project coordinator TU Dresden and Politechnika Warszawska) as well as five commercial organizations (IBM Research GmbH in Switzerland, Primetel plc in Cyprus, Argotech AS in Czech Republic, VI Systems GmbH in Germany, and TE Connectivity Nederland BV in The Netherlands, plus device manufacture by the UK’s CST Global).