MEL plans mechanically locked tunable SFP optical transceiver/Oclaro brings zero-chirp tunable XFP to market

MEL, a startup founded in 2009, announced plans for a low-power, tunable DWDM SFP transceiver (TRx) that will leverage its patent-protected chirped fiber Bragg grating and its athermal structure technology. The transceiver, which MEL has dubbed MLT (for “Mechanically Locked Tunable”), will consume half the power of existing EML-based transceivers and one third of the new tunable transceivers, the company asserts.

The company did not say when the MLT optical transceiver would be available.

The transceiver will offer a tuning range of 40 wavelengths with 100-GHz spacing over the C- or L-Band. Technicians will tune the MLT SFP transceiver by typing in a wavelength number on the panel of an electro-mechanic tuner. Although the wavelength is mechanically locked for the end of transceiver life, if necessary, the wavelength can be re-tuned at different wavelengths repeatedly.

According to Dr. B.W. Kim, the CEO of MEL, "Today's tunable transceivers are the products of lab engineers who had a fixation of changing wavelengths as many [times] as possible, but in reality and practice, you need to seldom change wavelength while in operation for broadband data transport and access networks."

MEL will display the MLT SFP transceiver TOSA, without the actual tuner, at the forthcoming ECOC in Geneva, September 19-21.



Oclaro Inc. (NASDAQ: OCLR) has added a zero-chirp full-band tunable XFP to its tunable optical transceiver module portfolio. Now in production, the zero-chirp tunable XFP provides equivalent performance to 300-pin optical transceiver modules in a smaller pluggable, MSA footprint with low power consumption, according to Oclaro.

The zero chirp tunable XFP comes in multiple configurations, including APD or PIN receiver options. The tunable XFP is fully qualified and released to production, complementing Oclaro’s negative-chirp tunable XFP.

According to Jim Haynes, president and general manager of Oclaro's Photonic Components Business Unit, "Our customers need tunable lasers in a variety of formats and our goal is to be the one-stop shop with the solutions that match their evolving product requirements."

Speaking with Lightwave, Robert Blum, who runs product marketing for the Photonic Components Business Unit, said that Oclaro has the technology in-house to produce tunable devices in even smaller footprints. He declined to say when the company might have a competitor to the tunable SFP+ JDSU has promised to make available next year (see “JDSU touts tunable SFP+ optical transceiver module”).