On March 26th 2021, Hengtong Optic-Electric Co., Ltd. convened a new product launch. Its subsidiary company Hengtong Rockley Technology Co., Ltd. moved forward to enrich its high-speed transceiver modules for data communication. The mass production version of 400G QSFP-DD DR4 transceiver based on silicon photonic circuits and 400G QSFP-DD FR4 transceiver based on traditional free space solution were released, making Hengtong capable of providing customers with 400G single mode optical transceiver modules for different transmission distances.

The mass production version of 400G QSFP-DD DR4 silicon photonic transceivers released by Hengtong Rockley is based on the miniaturized silicon photonic integrated chips and electronic integrated chips made by Rockley Photonics Limited, which also utilize the most advanced 7nm DSP chip, the power consumption less than 9W. Furthermore, its manufacturing cost is 10-30% less than traditional 400G transceivers based on free space optics, satisfying the demand of low power consumption and environment-friendly requirement of data center applications. Hengtong’s 400G transceivers utilize chip-on-board (COB) assembly solution, and passive alignment is used for optical coupling between fiber and silicon photonic chips due to a unique fabrication process, which is beneficial to mass production and cost reduction. Hengtong Rockley will accelerate mass production on 400G QSFP-DD DR4 silicon photonic transceivers.

Silicon photonic integrated circuits are one of the best solutions to realize the monolithic integration of photonic chips and electronic chips, especially the 400G silicon photonic chips are an advanced technology to break the bottleneck of mega-scale data exchange, showing great advantages in low power consumption, small footprint, relatively low cost, easiness for large volume integration, etc. With the rapid development of the next generation information and communication technology, it brings explosive growth of data communications. The 400G silicon photonic transceivers are expected to replace the traditional transceivers which are incapable to some extent. Particularly, in the era of Co-Packaged Optics (CPO), the silicon photonic solution will become the best choice. In the meantime, Hengtong also released the first prototype of 3.2T CPO switch based on silicon photonic technology in China, which is an important milestone in silicon photonic industry.

In addition, Hengtong Rockley’s 400G QSFP-DD FR4 transceiver also utilizes 7nm DSP chip, EML is used in transmitter side, and InP detector is used in receiver side, with the help of low-cost and mature WDM photonic device, making the entire module design and layout very compact. The power consumption is less than 9W.

Cui Wei, Vice President of Hengtong Group, stated that the enterprise can keep sustainable development only by accelerating its innovation pace. In the future, Hengtong will continuously focus on the world’s most advanced technology trends, intensifying original innovation, self-made innovation and integrated innovation in critical areas, striving to build the system integration service provider in optical communications, intelligent energy, oceanic communications and the whole value chain of energy, driving the sustainable development of the industrial ecosystem.