Crossing oceans: Loi Nguyen's engineering odyssey

Loi Nguyen arrived in the US with nothing but determination and went on to co-found Inphi, a semiconductor company acquired by Marvell for $10 billion. Now, the renowned high-speed semiconductor entrepreneur is ready for his next chapter.

Loi Nguyen, high-speed semiconductor entrepreneur at Marvell and an award-winning wildlife photographer

"What is the timeline?"

It's a question the CEO of Marvell, Matt Murphy, would pose to Loi Nguyen each year during their one-on-one meetings. "I've always thought of myself as a young guy; retirement seemed far away," says Nguyen. "Then, in October, it seemed like the time is now."

Nguyen will not, however, disappear. He will work on specific projects and take part in events, but this will no longer be a full-time role.

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DIMENSION tackles silicon photonics’ laser shortfall

Ambitious European project seeks to combine lasers, electronics and photonics, all on one chip

Several companies and research institutes, part of a European project, are developing a silicon photonics process that combines on-chip electronics and lasers. Dubbed Dimension (Directly Modulated Lasers on Silicon), the silicon photonics project is part of the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.

 The Dimension process showing the passive photonics, dielectric material, BiCMOS circuitry, and the on-chip lasers and modulators. The indium phosphide material is shown in red. Source: Dimension.

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NeoPhotonics showcases a CFP2-ACO roadmap to 400G

NeoPhotonics has begun sampling its CFP2-ACO, a pluggable module for metro and long-haul optical transport. 

The company demonstrated the CFP2-ACO module transmitting at 100 gigabit using polarisation multiplexed, quadrature phase-shift keying (PM-QPSK) modulation at the recent OFC show. The line-side module is capable of transmitting over 1,000km and also supports PM-16QAM that doubles capacity over metro network distances.

Ferris LipscombThe CFP2-ACO is a Class 3 design: the control electronics for the modulator and laser reside on the board, alongside the coherent DSP-ASIC chip.

At OFC, NeoPhotonics also demonstrated single-wavelength 400-gigabit transmission using more advanced modulation and a higher symbol rate, and a short-reach 100-gigabit link for inside the data centre using 4-level pulse-amplitude modulation (PAM4) signalling. 

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