Jun. 19 at 2:32 AM
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A 6.4T optical engine uses more Indium Phosphide (InP)than a 3.2T optical engine.Why 6.4T Consumes More InP MaterialsThe primary driver behind InP material consumption is the total lane count and light source volume required to double the bandwidth from 3.2 Terabits per second to 6.4 Tbps:Lane Count Multiplication: To scale upmulti-terabit architectures, optical engines rely on multiplying physical lanes or laser wavelengths. A 6.4T engine requires twice the data-carrying capacity of a 3.2T engine. Even when transitioning to next-generation individual 400G-per-lane speeds, a 6.4T engine requires 16 channels, whereas a 3.2T engine requires only 8 channels.Laser Component Volume: Whether the architecture uses discrete InP Electro-absorption Modulated Lasers (EMLs) or continuous-wave (CW) InP lasers arrayed to feed a Silicon Photonics (SiPho) engine, the physical number of laser chips or array sizes must scale up to deliver the necessary optical power and channels.
