21.09.2022 • News

Pilot Photonics uses pilot line services to create new products

Using the JePPIX MPW server which covers all the processes from the design to the foundry, Pilot Photonics has developed three new products.

The products that have been presented at the European Conference on Optical Communication 2022 (ECOC) are the low linewidth fast tunable laser, an InP-based monolithic single mode laser in the C-band; an integrated comb laser assembly (iCLA) for scaling coherent transceiver capacity, and SuperTROSA a comb-based superchannel transmitter.

Pilot Photonics team at ECOC 2022 (l–r): sales director Damian McGillivar,...

The low linewidth fast tunable laser (Source: JePPIX)

“JePPIX has allowed us to offer photonic integrated circuits with enhanced performance and capability and enabled us to target new industry verticals,” says Frank Smyth, founder and chief technology officer of Pilot Photonics. Kevin Williams, professor and chair of the photonic integration group at TU Eindhoven, a JePPIX partner, considers it “an excellent example of how an early stage company can create new products that may route to production thanks to the JePPIX pilot line”.

The JePPIX platform covers the whole value chain of indium phosphide photonic integrated circuits. On October 31, 2022, the next Deep-Dive PIC Design Course will start. This is a technology training that is celebrated every year and that focuses on the theory and practice of integrated photonic components and circuit design. The aim of this course is to up skill the engineering team of companies, RTOs or universities.

The low linewidth fast tunable laser exhibits a tuning range of >30 nm centered at 1,550 nm, with high side-mode suppression ratio. It offers linewidth <150 kHz and low power consumption. This laser is offered in a standard 14-pin butterfly package, with a thermo-electric cooler, internal isolators, and polarization-maintaining (PM) fiber pigtail with FC/APC connectors.

iCLA incorporates a monolithically integrated comb laser and demultiplexer that supplies four or more simultaneously generated coherent, phase matched outputs on separate fibers, replacing up to four integrated tunable laser assemblies (iTLAs). It is designed for driving multiple 400G/800G coherent optical engines on individual fibers from a single laser module. This patented source technology offers the ability to tune the wavelength separation of the four outputs, while maintaining the coherent and phase-matched characteristics, reducing the required DSP complexity.

The TERA-4-TX is a transmit side optical engine for next-generation coherent superchannel transceivers. It combines a wavelength-tunable, integrated comb source and demux that supply four simultaneously generated coherent wavelengths to an array of dual polarization IQ modulators.