Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. has expanded the lineup of FRL144U Series, pump lasers for high output, low power consumption Raman amplifiers, to include newly developed pump laser for the U-band by expanding bandwidth from existing S-, C-, and L-bands, and will start mass production from April of this year.
Furthermore, they optimized the design of laser chips mounted on existing FRL1441U Series, achieved fiber output of 1W at 35℃ in C-band, and developed pump lasers, which allow for further lowering power consumption by reducing reactive power.
Background
It is necessary to extend the bandwidth in order to enable high volume transmission
While communication traffic volume at data centers or elsewhere has been increasing on the background of the popularization of cloud service and the emergence of generative AI, along with increasing data transmission speed, the transmission distance decreases due to degradation of the OSNR on the signal receiving side.
In particular, when existing communication systems are used at faster transmission speeds, the role of the Raman amplifier, which can amplify optical output power without attenuation of the signal light quality, will become more important. Also, because the bandwidth of the signal expands as a result of high-speed transmission, it is necessary to extend the bandwidth in order to enable high volume transmission.
Raman amplifiers Need to Have high flexibility
Thus, Raman amplifiers need to have high flexibility to amplify the light source at a discretionary range, based on the selection of the pump laser wavelength. On the other hand, with the expansion into the U-band, the number of pump lasers used increases, so it is even more important for them to have high output power and low power consumption.
In October 2022, Furukawa Electric achieved 800mW output in the C-band, and also expanded the lineup to include a 700mW pump laser for the S-band and low power consumption 500mW pump laser for the L-band. Product sample shipments of these pump lasers began in April 2023.
FRL1441U Series
With the FRL1441U Series, they have reduced the power consumption of the pump lasers used for existing Raman amplifiers in the S-, C-, and L-bands by 37%, and made it possible to reduce the space used by using only 1 pump laser instead of the previous 2 unit through the development of the dual port pump laser.
Details
Product sample shipment starts from January of this year, and mass production is scheduled to begin in April
This time, to support further expansion of bandwidth, based on the specification for the L-band, specifically 500ｍW output and maximum power consumption of 10W, they added a pump laser for Raman amplifiers for the U-band (wavelength range: 1520-1545nm), where achieving a higher output power was challenging, to the lineup of FRL1441U Series. Product sample shipment starts from January of this year, and mass production is scheduled to begin in April.
Furthermore, while fiber output from the existing product for C-band is 800ｍW when the driving current is 4A at 35℃, this product achieved 1W as a result of optimizing the laser chip design. Similarly to the existing products, this product was developed in the 14-pin butterfly package, thereby reducing reactive power and contributing to further lowering power consumption.
Optimizing the design of the laser chip
In order to offer more technical advantages to FRL1441U Series, they reduced electrical resistance of laser chip by more than 10% by optimizing the design of the chip, and developed the laser chip, which enables high output power with low power consumption.
On this background, it uses their optical semiconductor processing technology using InP semiconductor materials developed over more than 25 years and high accuracy fiber coupling technology, as well as the application of their unique low loss, high efficiency semiconductor laser chip structure. It also takes advantage of the optimized design of their patented high efficiency semiconductor laser chip structure.
High output, low power consumption laser chip technology
Furukawa Electric will continue to develop high output, low power consumption laser chip technology
An oral presentation of this product will be made at Photonics West 2024 to be held in San Francisco, USA, in January of this year (on Jan. 29, 2024). The current development was conducted and achieved as part of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) commissioned research, ‘Beyond 5G – Development of extended range optical node technology for realizing ultra-high speed, large volume networks’ (Key Issue JPJ012368C04501).
Going forward, Furukawa Electric will continue to develop high output, low power consumption laser chip technology and contribute to accelerated reductions in module power consumption and the establishment of environmentally-friendly networks.
Furukawa Electric Group’s efforts towards the SDGs
Based on the ‘Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)’ adopted by the United Nations (UN), Furukawa Electric Group has formulated the ‘Furukawa Electric Group Vision 2030’, which sets the year 2030 as its target and is advancing efforts with the aim to ‘Build a sustainable world and make people’s life safe, peaceful and rewarding’.
Furukawa Electric Group will create solutions for the new generation of global infrastructure combining information, energy and mobility. Toward the achievement of their Vision 2030, they will take open, agile, and innovative approaches to promote ESG management that aims to increase corporate value over the medium to long term and will contribute to the achievement of the SDGs.