Early ECOC brief: 1060 nm VCSEL-based optical data communication link operates at 30 Gbit/s

The European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC) is the largest European event covering the field of optical communications. ECOC 2014 (Cannes, France; 21-25 Sept. 2014) will host numerous technical sessions covering everything from optical hardware, waveguide photonic devices, and fiber-optics and components to digital and optical signal processing, point-to-point transmission systems, and networks of all types, including home, data, metro, and core.

Details of some of the papers to be presented are already dribbling out. For example, a paper to be presented by researchers from VI Systems GmbH (Berlin, Germany), the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU; Lyngby, Denmark) will describe the demo of an optical link for data communication using a 1060 nm vertical cavity surface emitting (VCSEL) transmitter and a high-speed receiver module (R40-1300 from VI Systems).

Highly strained quantum well
The light source is a bottom-emitting, highly strained 1060 nm quantum-well VCSEL developed by Larry Coldren’s group at UCSB's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The receiver, which operates over the wavelength range from 900-1350 nm, is designed for data rates of up to 40 Gbit/s and includes a transimpedance amplifier packaged in a fiber-coupled receiver optical subassembly (ROSA).

System analysis and data-transmission experiments were performed at Tafur Monroy’s lab at the DTU Fotonik Department of Photonics Engineering.

For the rest of the details, you'll have to wait for the ECOC presentation.