Key terms in photonics and optical networking
InP
Indium phosphide, the substrate material at the heart of many high-performance optical components.
EML
Electro-absorption modulated laser, a critical building block for fast optical interconnects.
CPO
Co-packaged optics, which brings optics closer to the switch or accelerator package to cut power and latency.
SiPh
Silicon photonics, the process layer where light is routed and modulated on silicon.
Transceiver
The module that turns electrical data into optical signals and back again.
Coherent
A transmission method that preserves amplitude and phase information to move more data per fiber.
MOCVD
Metal-organic chemical vapour deposition — the epitaxial growth process used to deposit III-V semiconductor layers with atomic precision.
DSP
Digital signal processor, the ASIC inside coherent transceivers that handles forward error correction, equalisation, and modulation.