Ensphere Solutions' 12-port and 4-port 10G laser diode driver arrays for long haul optical modules

SANTA CLARA, USA: Ensphere Solutions, an emerging leader in advanced communications semiconductor ICs, has announced the availability of two new 10G laser diode driver arrays (LDDs).

The 10G drivers provide a highly integrated solution for 10G, 40G, and 100G optical modules where they deliver high performance and low solution costs in four-port (ESI-1014), and twelve-port (ESI-1110) applications.

ESI-1014 and ESI-1110 driver arrays are able to support a wide variety of laser RC time constants, allowing them to drive FP/DFB lasers. They are capable of supplying up to 100 mA of bias and 50 mA of modulation currents (per port). When used in a shunt configuration, they can dramatically reduce a design’s overall power dissipation and PCB area by assuming the heavy burden of driving low impedance laser diodes while presenting a 100Ω load to the preceding driver.

In addition, crosstalk between adjacent ports is less than -30 dB. Ensphere’s LDDs are implemented in a low power CMOS technology and only consume 100 mW/port - including the power dissipated by the laser.

Both laser driver ICs are available as raw dies, in either flip-chip or die-bonding configurations. They are fully characterized over industrial temperature range.

“These products have been defined and developed in close cooperation with leading optical module vendors,” said Hessam Mohajeri, Ensphere’s Chief Executive Officer. “The single most important differentiator for these products is the system performance they deliver while all channels are running at full speed.”

“The die for these arrays can be mounted directly adjacent to the laser array within the optical subassembly or module. This scheme minimizes the footprint and trace lengths improving the performance and compactness of the module,” said Al Gharakhanian, Ensphere’s VP of Marketing. “Our application engineering team has accumulated a wealth of experience building optical modules using these drivers.”

Sample quantities of the ESI-1014 and ESI-1110 driver arrays are available now. Production quantities of both devices will be available at the end of August 2010.