Thermal Characterization of High-Power Pluggable Optical Modules

Presented by Hasan Ali (Molex) | Joe Jacques (Cisco)

With the increasing bandwidth capacity of Network Switches and Servers it is necessary to use higher data rates (112G, 224G) which results in an increasing need for digital signal processing to support the speed and reaches required to make solutions feasible. This enhanced processing power brings with it inherent thermal impacts making thermal management both critical and challenging.

Traditionally, module case temperature has been used to characterize thermal performance of optical modules. This approach is proving to be suboptimal when considering future high-speed transceivers anticipated to be as high as 40W. In order to maintain efficient system designs, cost, power efficiency and thermal management, alternate methodologies are possible.

This presentation will highlight limitations of today’s case temperature approach and discuss alternate methodologies weighing in pros and cons of each approach from system and module designers’ point of view.