Hengtong Rockley Technology Co., Ltd. has announced its release of a 400G QSFP-DD DR4 optical module based on silicon photonics technology geared for cloud data center networks. Hengtong Rockley is presenting a live demo of the module from March 10-12 at the OFC 2020 exhibition in San Diego, CA.
Hengtong Rockley is a joint venture established by Hengtong Optic-Electric Co., Ltd., of China and Rockley Photonics Limited, of the UK. The company designs and manufactures high-end optical modules, and is also committed to the design of silicon photonics chips and their integration, packaging, and testing.
The new 400G QSFP-DD module is the first 400G silicon photonics optical module product unveiled by Hengtong Rockley. The DR4 optical module is intended for use in next generation cloud-scale data center networks for low-cost, low-power consumption optical connections between switches. The deployment of such 400G transceivers will enable data center networks to deliver a 4x increase in network speed compared to existing deployments using 100G, notes the manufacturer.
Hengtong Rockley's 400G QSFP-DD DR4 module uses what the manufacturer asserts is the industry's most advanced 7nm DSP chip. The proprietary optical chipsets, which form the key building blocks of the transceiver, are from Rockley Photonics, Ltd., who is also offering live demos of its silicon photonics TX and RX PIC chipsets used in the Hengtong Rockley 400G DR4 transceiver in its booth at OFC.
Rockley's silicon photonics technology not only integrates passive and active optical components to greatly reduce the need for any optical sub-assembly, but also introduces a special design to ease fiber coupling. As a result of the automated passive alignment process for light sources and fiber arrays, the manufacturing process for the optical module has been simplified and made suitable for mass production, contends the company.