ECOC is a European photonics event that attracts scientists and researchers wishing to present new innovations, initiatives and results from researchers in both industry and academia. 2023 marked the 49th edition of the event, which took place in Glasgow, Scotland..
The conference reported on the latest progress in optical technologies for telecom and datacom applications via selected papers, keynotes, presentations and special symposia. This year’s plenary speakers included Vint Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google and previous The Photonics100 honouree, Polina Bayvel, Professor of Optical Communications & Networks, Optical Networks Group at UCL. Meanwhile, Carol Monaghan, Member of Parliament for Glasgow North West spoke at the conference dinner, and the outreach talk was given by Professor Gillian Wright, Director, UK Astronomy Technology Centre and European PI, James Webb Space Telescope Mid-IR Instrument.
There were also hundreds of exhibitors at the exhibition side of the event, with exciting new technology launches covering a wide range of optical communication products and services. Here is a roundup of just some of the technology and product announcements, demonstrations and industry news that took place at the event.
Photonics technology announcements at ECOC 2023
Acacia (part of Cisco) brought its full portfolio of 400G ZR/ZR+ pluggable solutions, including the Bright 400ZR+ QSFP-DD pluggable coherent optical module with high-transmit power. The company also participated in the OIF 400ZR+ optics interoperability demonstration . Acacia also showcased its single carrier pluggable 1.2T Coherent Interconnect Module 8 (CIM 8), which has been shipping since late 2022.
Apac Opto Electronics demonstrated its latest 400Gb/s QSFP-DD active optical cable (AOC). It is compliant with the QSFP-DD MSA Rev5.0 and IEEE 802.3bs, and Common Management Interface Specification Rev4.0. 400G AOC is an assembly of eight full-duplex lanes, where each lane is capable of transmitting data at rates up to 53.125Gb/s PAM-4.
AVoptics gave a live demonstration of its Proton polishing machine. Proton is designed to deliver Telcordia-compliant, single-mode UPC and APC finishes, in a compact, handheld, and battery-operated device. Proton is able to polish connectors sideways and in various orientations, making it handy for tight spaces like datacom wire closets, aircraft fuselage, and shipboard networking.
Coherent has launched what it calls “the industry’s first” pump laser module with 1200mW of output power in a 10-pin butterfly package. The 1200mW pump lasers are designed to provide the additional power needed to amplify the larger number of channels supported by next-gen ultra-broadband optical transmission systems while meeting the stringent reliability requirements of advanced networks.
Corning showcased technologies that help accelerate installation of optical networks to meet surging bandwidth demands. These include Corning ClearCurve OM3 XT and OM4 XT multimode fibres, which are engineered for Terabit BiDi and emerging 100G/lane transceivers in 400G/800G data centres. The Corning Edge Rapid Connect Solution, meanwhile, is a pre-terminated solution designed specifically for high-fibre-count connectivity between data halls and buildings allowing hyperscale operators to interconnect up to 70% faster.
Eoptolink Technology demonstrated its latest 800G and 1.6T optical transceivers adopting 200G per lambda technologies at ECOC. The products are based on EMLs, SiPho and TFLN modulators. The company will also demonstrate its 800G LPO products at the show, which are designed to provide low power consumption and low latency performance.
Korean startup Lipac recently announced new lineups of optical engine products for optical transceivers. By integrating PICs and EICs into a single semiconductor package through its optical system in package (O-SiP) technology, its products are designed to be competitive in cost, productivity, reliability, signal integrity, heat dissipation and form-factor. Recently launched optical engine products are for 400G-FR4/LR4 and 400G-SR4 transceivers, and the company also actively participated in the Consortium for On-Board Optics (COBO) to help develop new standards for higher speed optical-link required in telecom and datacom industries.
Multilane brought its OSFP-XD fixtures to ECOC. The host and module compliance boards feature compliant insertion and return loss across all channels, designed to offer a fully-functional set of tools to kickstart OSFP-XD development. In addition, the ML4064-XD-MCB-112-MXPM70 module compliance board is complete with a with a full CMIS GUI allowing access to module EEPROM, I2C and low-speed signals.
Nanoscribe and the Dutch photonics packaging foundry PHIX B.V. announced that they are collaborating to provide on-fibre printing services to the photonics packaging industry. Using Nanoscribe’s new high-performance 3D microlens printing technology with nano-precision alignment capabilities, PHIX uses this new technological approach in its manufacturing services of standard lensed fibre arrays (LFAs). Thus, LFAs can be 3D-printed using Nanoscribe’s Aligned 2-Photon Lithography A2PL technology according to the customer’s specific requirements. The PHIX service portfolio also includes the fabrication of free space microoptical coupling (FSMOC) components.
Samtec’s Flyover solutions are designed to help simplify PCB design and limit signal degradation in high data rate applications. The company’s FireHawk rugged optical transceivers combine extreme density with extreme performance to meet the harshest military and aerospace environments, while the FireHawk Evaluation Kits provide system designers, optical and SI engineers an easy-to-use solution for testing a variety of FireHawk rugged optical transceivers.
