Renesas Electronics introduces the industry's first CMOS process integrated CDR for PAM4 applications

Renesas Electronics, a global provider of semiconductor solutions, announced that it is combining its industry-leading portfolio of optical communications products with popular microcontrollers (MCUS), timing and power devices to drive rapid deployment of telecommunications and data center systems. The latest additions to the Renesas optical interconnect family include the world's first Clock Data recovery (CDR) HXC44400 based on a 200G (4x50G) CMOS process, the HXT14450 with high-density integrated CDR and VCSEL drives, and the HXR14450 with high-density integrated CDR and Linear TIA.

The new integrated CDR products have been added to Renesas' current high-performance PAM4 optical signal transmission product line, which includes the HXT45411 product family for EML drivers, the Silicon optical driver HXT45430, the DML driver HXT44420 product family and the linear TIAHXR45400 product family. As well as the driver GX76474 product family and the TIAGX36420 product family for 64GBaud coherent reception applications.

Customers can combine these optical communications product families with a wide range of Renesas MCUS, power management and timing devices into complete solutions that provide customers with everything they need, from optical interconnects to MCUS, to help them bring their applications to market more easily and quickly.

DiwakarVishakhadatta, vice president of Optical Communications products at Renesas Electronics, said: "Over the past few months, the market demand for data center, networking and telecommunications infrastructure systems has grown significantly, driven by high bandwidth data volumes (such as live and on-demand streaming content), an increase in the number of AI-based systems, and an increase in the number of applications. And a global shift to cloud computing applications driven by increasing consumer reliance on connected systems in their work and daily lives. "As cloud and network services become increasingly important in the daily lives of enterprises and consumers, we are aggressively expanding our optical communications product line to add new products to our leading MCUS, timing and power products to provide customers with a complete solution that covers all optical module components needed for their current and future system upgrades and expansions."

Data communication Optical communication

With the increasing adoption of PAM4 technology in data centers and 5G, with optical interconnect bandwidths upgraded to 200G, 400G (or higher), the demand for solutions based on PAM4 technology and coherence technology is growing. These solutions are smaller and less costly, while maintaining low power consumption and high reliability.

The industry's first CMOs-based PAM4 CDR plus single-chip integrated VCSEL driver HXT14450 and linear TIAHXR14450 can effectively address and meet the requirements of 200G and 400G short-range optical modules and active optical cables in the data center for rapid development and low cost. Compared to traditional DSP solutions, the series features lower latency, lower power consumption and smaller size, as well as higher integration (including integrated MCUS), further simplifying and speeding up optical module system design. This series of CDRS has been certified in the -40 to 85 ° C temperature range, making it ideal for optical interconnect communications in 5G forward and medium pass infrastructures as well. In addition, Renesas offers a standalone HXC44400 CDR, which customers can use in combination with Renesas DML drives, EML drives and linear TIA to support 200G and 400G remote transmission, or choose a CDR with integrated VCSEL and TIA to support short-range optical interconnect.

Telecommunication optical communication

Network equipment is under increasing pressure as the network demands of service providers, device manufacturers and enterprises increase. Today's telecom network and 5G infrastructure providers have expanded their deployment of coherent technology's 400G equipment in the backbone, and data center operators have begun deploying the 400ZR standard, as defined by the OIF, to meet this demand.

The Renesas 64 GBaud GX76474 driver family and GX36420 Coherent Technology TIA combine outstanding analog performance, low power consumption and high reliability with high bandwidth and configurability to support coherent optical communications, the fastest growing segment of the telecommunications industry.

The new drivers and TIA support all key requirements to meet the growing demands of remote communications, including:

● Uses industry-standard 64 GBaud modulation with data speeds up to 400Gb/s

● Scalable solutions for 32G, 45G and 64G enable customers to optimize speed, power consumption and cost, as well as adjust key parameters via SPI

The GX76474 and GX36420 series also cover all optical modulator technologies currently on the market, including lithium niobate, indium phosphide and silicon optics as well as industry-standard ICR and TROSA configurations.