Ultra small form factor plastic package transceiver modules for large core fiber systems

We have developed ultra small form factor fiber optic transceiver (FOT) modules using plastic packaging technologies for large core fiber systems such as plastic optical fiber (POF) and poler cladded silica (PCS) fiber systems. The 850 nm VCSEL based transmitter can operate from Mbps to Gbps depending on electrical design. An internal control circuit stabilizes the optical output power to within 0.5 dB variation over a wide ambient temperature range from -40degC to +125degC. Eye diagrams at 50 Mbps are wide open over the normal operating temperature range from -40degC to +105degC. The extinction ratio is larger than 10 dB and the uncorrelated jitter is less than 150 ps. For 50 Mbps data rate, the fiber optic receiver module consists of a Si-pin photodetector (PD) and receiver IC. The eye diagrams at 50 Mbps and -24 dBm OMA input are wide open over the entire temperature range from -40degC to +105degC. The uncorrelated jitter is less than 800 ps. A sensitivity of -34 dBm optical modulation amplitude is obtained for a BER equals to 1E-9. For high data rates up to the Gbps range, a GaAs metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) PD is used in the receiver module. With a pair of VCSEL transmitter and MSM-PD receiver we achieve 1.25 Gbps transmission over 10 m of PCS fiber. The leadframe style package exhibits a compact small size of 9.7mm times 6.2mm times 3.6mm. It provides loose alignment tolerances of plusmn100 mum in lateral axis for a working distance of 500 mum to a large core PCS optical fiber. The transmitter module is highly reliable and stable over 1000 temperature cycles from times40degC to +125degC and also over 1000 hours at 85degC/85% damp heat condition