The full-duplex 12+12 LightABLE represents a remarkable feat of engineering that illustrates once more Reflex’s mastery of advanced optical design.

Reflex Photonics Inc. has developed compact 150G full-duplex (12+12) 12.5Gbps/lane optical fiber transceivers for harsh environment applications in Aerospace and Defense.

The LightABLE LL 150G full duplex devices are designed to be embedded on printed-circuit boards in close proximity to high-speed electronics in high performance embedded computing systems to optimize their operation.

The same transceivers can also be integrated in blind mate interconnects (LightCONEX), as per VITA 66.5, to free-up more space on the board and reduce optical fiber management.

Maximizing SWaP and versatility

These devices have been designed to maximize SWaP. They are very compact, weigh less than 5 g, and have power consumption as low as 120 mW/lane. In addition, thermal management is optimized through multiple heat dissipation paths in the compact volume of these transceivers.

The LightABLE LL modules attach with an LGA socket; a technology that offers high-speed and high-performance electrical interface, height flexibility, screw-in mechanical reliability, and practical insertion/removal capabilities.

The LightCONEX LC 150G full-duplex active blind-mate optical interconnect, based on the OpenVPX standards, frees up board space by integrating the optical transceiver into the board edge connector. The backplane connector, also part of the LightCONEX solution, has a spring-loaded mechanism ensuring optimal optical mating meeting VITA 66.0 requirements. The rugged construction of these connectors ensures error free data transmission under severe shock, vibration, and temperature extremes.

The LightABLE LL and LightCONEX LC find applications in optical backplanes and VPX systems, like those deployed in high-performance embedded computing systems for civilian and military command and control monitoring (C4ISR) systems.

Reflex Photonics’ Senior Technical Advisor, Jocelyn Lauzon comments:

“The full-duplex 12+12 LightABLE and LightCONEX represents a remarkable feat of engineering that illustrates once more Reflex’s mastery of advanced optical design. These modules offer market leading I/O density and satisfy the most stringent SWaP requirements with a minuscule PCB footprint and volume.

We believe this design offers the best “performance/cost per lane” ratio in the industry, as it expands on the proven rugged constructions found in LightABLE TRX4 products, which have been used for many years in harsh environment applications.”

A technical paper presenting this transceiver more in depth and entitled High-Density 12 Transmitters Plus 12 Receivers Rugged Optical Fiber Transceivers will be presented at the Avionics and Vehicle Fiber-Optics and Photonics Conference 2018 (AVFOP) on November 14.

About Reflex Photonics

Founded in 2002, Reflex Photonics is an advanced developer of rugged high-speed optical transceiver modules and parallel embedded optics products for space, aerospace, defense, avionics, telecom, data centers and industrial applications.

The company addresses the growing market demand for high-speed interconnects in high performance embedded computers. Our products enable equipment developers to design smaller, lower cost, and lower powered systems resulting in higher fidelity and faster connectivity.