Regarding the development of Ethernet switch capacity and pluggable optical module speed, Intel has provided a trend chart that clearly demonstrates the synergistic relationship between the two in technological evolution, as shown in the following figure:

From the current market perspective, 1.6T optical modules have entered the actual commercial stage, and pluggable optical modules generally follow the standards defined by the Multi Source Agreement (MSA), but they have different appearances, such as QSFP-DD and OSFP, among which QSFP-DD includes 400GBASE-SR8, 400GBASE-DR4, 400GBASE-FR4, 400GBASE-LR4, and 400GBASE-ZR4.

Among them, 1.6T adopts OSFP packaging, which adopts more advanced 200G/channel technology and has a fairly good energy efficiency control, consuming only about 17 pJ of energy per bit. We can simply calculate its total power consumption using this formula:
Power consumption (watts)=total data rate (bit/s) x unit energy efficiency (pJ/bit)
Substituting the data is: 1.6 × 10 ¹² × 17 × 10 ⁻¹²=27.2 W
That is to say, the operating power consumption of a 1.6T optical module is approximately 27.2 watts.
The core architecture of a 1.6T optical module is actually a small system that completes photoelectric conversion, mainly including laser, modulator, photodetector, amplifier (TIA), clock data recovery unit (CDR), and signal processing chip (DSP or Gearbox) and other components. Package upgrade of 1.6T optical module: Adopting QSFP-DD800/OSFP-XD package, the number of channels has been increased to 16 × 112G, supporting 1.6T transmission rate. Material innovation: The membrane lithium niobate modulator extends the transmission distance to 2km, meeting the long-distance interconnection requirements of data centers. Power consumption optimization: The 1.6T OSFP module has a power consumption of only 14W, which is 35% and 60% lower than the CPO scheme.
The traditional method of manufacturing optical modules has faced many challenges. The transmission component (Tx) of the traditional 400GBASE-DR4 module requires precise manual alignment and assembly of individual components such as the laser (EML), lens, and isolator. This process is very time-consuming and costly.
To address this issue, Intel has introduced higher integration silicon photonics technology. The key to this technology lies in Intel's ability to bond small chips made of indium phosphide (InP) material onto 300mm silicon wafers, thereby directly manufacturing lasers and other optical components on the wafers.
At present, if we use 800G optical modules and want to achieve a total switching capacity of 51.2T, we need a rack with a height of 2RU. But if replaced with a 1.6T optical module, only 1RU of space is needed to achieve the same capacity - equivalent to doubling the bandwidth per unit rack space.
1.6T 2 × FR4 PIC. This architecture is similar to 800G 2 × FR4, but the solution has 8 high-speed MZMs with a running speed of 200 G/line, simplifying the design of 1.6T optical modules on the OSFP platform.
The 2 × FR4 1.6T optical module is equipped with 8 high-speed MZMs that can reach a speed of 200 G/line, making it easier to achieve 1.6T speed in OSFP packaging. Simultaneously using two such PICs on the OSFP-XD platform can achieve a capacity of 3.2T.

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