13 August 2015

II-VI unveils 1W optical communications 980nm pump module

Engineered materials and optoelectronic component maker II-VI Inc of Saxonburg, PA, USA has launched its high-power (1W) 980nm pump laser module, which leverages the proven high-reliability laser diode technology from the firm's in-house wafer fab at its Laser Enterprise Division in Zurich, Switzerland.

"This advancement in pump laser technology delivers the most efficient commercially available 980nm pump laser in the world, both in terms of laser conversion efficiency and total module power consumption," claims II-VI Pump Laser Division general manager Simon Loten.

The new 1W pump laser module enables up to 1050mW of kink-free optical power through a grating- stabilized single-mode fiber for easier integration into the EDFA system. The module is housed in the established 10-pin, mBTF (mini-Butterfly) format package, which is rapidly becoming adopted as the new market standard, says the firm, providing an electrically and mechanically compatible pin-out to legacy 14-pin packages, in a 75% smaller package. The product is fully qualified to the requirements of Telcordia GR-468-CORE and is RoHS 6/6 compliant.

"It provides EDFA [erbium-doped fiber amplifier] designers with new options to increase output power per stage within high-power DWDM solutions, while being more efficient and reducing overall cost of network ownership," he adds. "The new module can also be used to replace pairs of lower-power modules, enabling cost-effective, more thermally efficient and environmentally conscious designs," continues Loten. "When compared with 14xx nm and competing 980nm solutions, the II-VI pump laser modules achieve very high power at significantly lower drive current and thermo-electric cooler power."

The new 1W module is sampling to customers now, and will be ramping through third-quarter 2015.

II-VI also says that it has surpassed the 2 million milestone of pump laser modules shipped. Originally established in the mid-1990s, now II-VI's pump laser modules represent a key foundation of modern DWDM optical transport systems, the firm adds. For two decades, the key laser technology has been developed and refined to enable increased output power, lower power consumption, improved reliability and performance.

The original pump laser modules were capable of producing about 100mW of usable optical power. Today, pump laser modules operate at an order of magnitude higher power, enabling EDFA technology to continue to be the backbone of the bandwidth explosion, with more flexible and efficient designs. II-VI says that this evolution has been enabled by the continuous relationship between the firm's chip designers in Switzerland and the advanced packaging teams in the UK and China.

Tags: II-VI Inc Laser diodes

Visit: www.ii-vi-photonics.com