Transmit-Receive Optical Subassembly (TROSA)

What is a Transmit-Receive Optical Subassembly?

A Transmit-Receive Optical Subassembly (TROSA) is a highly integrated coherent optical front end that performs electrical to optical and optical to electrical conversions, enabling a coherent transceiver to transmit and receive data across a high-speed optical fiber network.

Packaged together with a digital control interface in a hermetic package, a TROSA converts digital signals originating from a coherent digital signal processor (DSP) into modulated light to be transmitted into the optical fiber. In the opposite direction, it transforms incoming light into electrical signals that the DSP processes. A TROSA integrates on a single assembly:

Photonics, including lasers, Mach-Zehnder modulators and photodetectors,
RF integrated circuits, including drivers and transimpedance amplifiers.

TROSAs are enabled by advanced semiconductor technologies such as indium phosphide (InP)-based photonic integrated circuits (PICs).
Leveraging the unique capabilities of its U.S.-based optical semiconductor fab, and using a distributed gain architecture, Nokia TROSAs set a new industry record in high-density monolithic integration of discrete functions, including coherent PIC, radio frequency application-specific integrated circuit (RF-ASIC) and thermoelectric cooling.

person manipulating semiconductor in clean lab

What are the benefits of Nokia ICTR InP TROSAs?

Performance

Deploy in metro, regional, and long-haul networks, leveraging leading performance enabled by high transmit power and OSNR, and low out-of-band noise suited for cascaded ROADMs.

Efficiency

Benefit from design simplicity, high reliability, and high-volume manufacturability while achieving low power consumption in a compact footprint at low cost.

Ease of integration

Simplify transceiver assembly with simple integration into digital coherent optics (DCO) in various embedded and pluggable form factors.

Products

Nokia Integrated Coherent Transmitter Receiver (ICTR) optics are available as stand-alone TROSA modules, for third-party integration into pluggable or embedded DCO applications.

They can be combined with Nokia Coherent Digital Signal Processors or with third party DSPs.

ICTR140 module

The ICTR140 is a TROSA leveraging monolithically integrated indium phosphide (InP) photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and set industry benchmarks for high-density integration of multiple discrete functions into a single transceiver submodule. The ICTR140 can be used in 800 Gb/s and 1.2 Tb/s high-performance applications, operating at baud rates up to 148GBaud. The ICTR140 is designed for up to 0dBm Tx power and is C-band tunable. It is suitable for metro, regional and long-haul networks and fits well into QSFP-DD and OSFP pluggables packaging.

ICTR140 is suitable for integration into 800 Gb/s or 1.2 Tb/s modules and can be combined with Nokia Tahoe DSP or with a third-party coherent DSP.

ICTR64 module

The ICTR64 is a TROSA leveraging monolithically integrated indium phosphide (InP) photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and set industry benchmarks for high-density integration of multiple discrete functions into a single transceiver submodule. The ICTR64 can be used in applications up to 400Gb/s and operating at baud rates up to 71GBaud. The ICTR64 is designed with up to 0dBm Tx power and is C-band tunable. It is suitable for metro, regional and long-haul networks and fits well into QSFP-DD and CFP2-DCO pluggables packaging.

ICTR64 is suitable for integration into 400 Gb/s modules and can be combined with Nokia Wa’a DSP or with a third-party coherent DSP.