Title: Performance Assessment for High-Speed 112G/224G SERDES with Direct-Drive Optical Engine

Type: Technical Session

Description:

In a race to 800Gbps, 1.6Tbps, and higher data rate networking, un-retimed linear direct-drive whether in pluggable optics or in near package optics (NPO) - offers CPO-like spectral and energy efficiencies. The optical channel and the optical engine - both introduce nonlinear behavior. Traditional simulation-assisted design approaches involve modeling optical engines in electrical circuit languages and simulators often under the linear channel assumptions thereby resulting in an optimistic assessment of the interconnect performance. This paper examines trade-offs involved in the conventional approach and presents an electrical-optical co-simulation in native electrical and optical signal representations. The simulation and measurements correlation case considers a Synopsys High-speed direct-drive PAM4 112G SerDes Solution using OpenLight 112G optical engine based on Tower PH18A silicon photonic technology. Both the linear and non-linear impairments from the optical engine and channel are considered. The methodology is agnostic to technology, data rate, and modulation format, and can be applied to modeling wide-ranging E-O-E interconnects.