Overview

Today’s high volume datacom optics defined by IEEE and MSA standards specify serial or four WDM interfaces. The CW-WDM MSA (Continuous-Wave Wavelength Division Multiplexing Multi-Source Agreement) was formed to standardize WDM CW sources in O-band for emerging advanced integrated optics applications that are expected to move to 8, 16, and 32 wavelengths. Such higher wavelength counts are needed for emerging applications such as silicon photonics (SiPh) based high-density co-packaged optics, optical computing, and AI, and enable a leap in performance, efficiency, cost, and bandwidth scaling compared with previous technology generations. The new specifications will leverage IEEE and ITU-T standards. There is no plan to standardize link parameters as these will remain unique to applications. Standardization of mechanical form factors will not be part of the first MSA standard but will be considered in follow-on specs.