HENIAC

HENIAC project addresses the need for increasing capacity in optical communication networks. Today’s most advanced optical communication systems provide 100-Gb/s capacity per optical wavelength, based on 30-GBd symbol rate and 2 bit/s/Hz spectral efficiency. The aim of HENIAC project is to develop key enabling technologies that will allow increasing per-wavelength capacity by a 4-fold factor through the increase of both symbol rate and spectral efficiency, demonstrating 400 Gb/s and paving the way to 1 Tb/s. Based on the concept of “Power-DAC”, recently demonstrated by III-V Lab, HENIAC aims at developing a portfolio of very high speed digital-to-analog converters with large output swing and integrating multiplexing functions. The realised circuits will be packaged into surface-mountable industrial-grade modules that will require advanced high frequency technologies and electromagnetic simulations to overcome critical signal integrity issues. The realised components will then be used in optical transmission experiments. Thanks to a versatile FPGA-based transmitter implementation, coupled with specifically developed detection algorithms on the receive side, high speed multilevel modulation formats with increasing complexity will be demonstrated. The project comprises three phases: 1. In Phase 1, the goal is to realize an initial demonstration at 400 Gb/s with PDM 16-QAM modulation at 60 GBd using limited integration level and standard modules (separate 2-bit Power-DAC and Mux chips packaged in multi-chip modules with standard DC and RF interfaces). 2. In Phase 2, capitalizing on Phase 1, the goal is to improve the performances at 400 Gb/s, through more integration and more advanced modules (monolithically integrated 2-bit Power-DAC and Muxes, packaged in modules with surface-mountable RF inputs and DC interfaces and GPPO-based RF outputs). 3. In Phase 3, 3-bit Power-DAC integrating Muxes, packaged in fully surface-mountable modules, will allow demonstrating 500 Gb/s and 1 Tb/s (using dual-carrier technique) with PDM 64-QAM modulation at 50 GBd. The combined expertise of HENIAC consortium will allow addressing the following key technical bottlenecks: • integrated digital-to-analog converters achieving simultaneously very high speed, large swing and high signal quality • advanced packaging technologies allowing cost-efficient surface-mountable modules as well as practical system implementation • high spectral efficiency multilevel optical modulation formats and optimized coding, transmission and detection techniques. As a result, HENIAC project will allow exploration of optical fibre communications’ capacity limits through the combined increase of spectral efficiency and symbol rate. The choice of surface mountable module technology will shorten the path to development and industrialisation of next generation optical communication systems, towards 1 Tb/s.