II-VI Incorporated announced that it completed the tape-out of its Steelerton™ digital signal processor (DSP) for 100 Gbps coherent transmission in optical access and aggregation networks. The growth of 5G wireless and high-speed broadband services is driving the explosive demand for coherent transceiver technology optimized for optical access networks. While service providers currently deploy coherent transceivers in core networks and datacenter interconnects, they are seeking new designs that meet their high volume, low cost, low power dissipation, and small size requirements for access networks.

II-VI's Steelerton DSP, miniaturized and with ultralow power dissipation, typically of 2 W, was designed specifically to enable 100 Gbps digital coherent optics (DCO) in a pluggable QSFP28 format, one of the most widely deployed 100 Gbps transceiver form factors in access networks.