GigOptix Partners with Fraunhofer-HHI

GigOptix, a vendor of advanced semiconductor and optical communications components, signed a strategic partnership agreement with Fraunhofer (News - Alert) Heinrich Hertz Institute, a reputed polymer technology and communication systems research institute.

GigOptix has also formed fully owned subsidiary GigOptix GmbH, as a key integration center which will be working closely with Fraunhofer HHI and other regional partners.

The partnership has been initiated to commence a fully integrated production-ready reference platform that will allow volume production of 100Gbps form-factor Pluggable CFP and CFP2 optical transceiver modules, for 100Gbps coherent telecom applications such as 100Gbps DP-QPSK, based on GigOptix’s active polymer modulator technology.

“We are honored to partner with Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute to advance the deployment of polymer technology in the high growth 100Gbps coherent market,” Raluca Dinu, general manager and vice president of the Optics Product Line at GigOptix, said in a statement.

This partnership combines the best 100Gbps polymer technology into CFP and CFP2 packages.

The Thin Film Polymer on Silicon technology that GigOptix has developed provides a foundation for smaller System-In-Package optical transceivers. The combination of the tunable laser from Fraunhofer HHI – and the optical modulator from GigOptix – is believed to advance the next generation of optical transceiver SIPs based on TFPS technology.

The SIP modules will contain an integrated polymer Transmit Optical Sub-Assembly (TOSA), using the GigOptix TFPS modulator chip, and an integrated Receive Optical Sub-Assembly (ROSA).

The integrated TOSA SIP will be available initially with GigOptix GX62455 100Gbps quad driver, with further integration plans in development.

 “We feel that the partnership with GigOptix provides excellent optical synergy and represents the best path to commercialize our polymer technology,” said Martin Schell, department head Photonic Components of HHI.

GigOptix recently announced the appointment of photonics integration veteran, Giovanni Delrosso, to the newly created role of Senior Photonic Packaging and Integration Architect, who will be based at GigOptix's subsidiary GigOptix GmbH in Berlin.