20nm tech powers 100G coherent PHY

Broadcom is teaming up with NTT Electronics to drive the next generation of pluggable optical modules. The U.S. company announced that its 20nm signal processing enhanced mixed signal technologies is enabling the new NLD0640 100G coherent digital signal processor.

Optimised for use in 100G-and-beyond optical fibre communication systems, the Broadcom-enabled coherent physical layer transceiver (PHY) consumes less than half the power of existing long-haul coherent ICs and expands the use of coherent technology to metro and shorter reach links.

The low-power 100G coherent PHY allows the use of a DSP within lower power and smaller second generation coherent 100G modules, including C form factor pluggable (CFP) and compact CFP2 analogue coherent optical (ACO) modules. In addition, Broadcom's 65GS/s 8bit ADC and DAC IP helps the 100G coherent PHY to optimise power and performance in both long-haul and metro applications.

According to industry analyst firm Infonetics Research, the demand for 100G optical transceivers is growing rapidly as carriers aggressively roll out the new technology. Infonetics predicts that over the next few years, short and intermediate metro reach interfaces will make up a larger proportion of revenue as the technology moves from service provider to much higher volume data centre and enterprise applications.

"Our industry leading 20nm signal processing enhanced mixed-signal technologies and A0 silicon execution has allowed NEL to substantially reduce power consumption while meeting stringent time to market requirements," said Lorenzo Longo, Broadcom VP and general manager, Physical Layer Products.