Optical fiber is abbreviated as fiber optics; its advantages include fast transmission rates, low transmission losses, and powerful anti-interference capabilities, etc.; in actual applications, it also requires the use of passive optical networks (PON) and equipment such as optical fiber connectors to perform the photoelectric conversion and precision connection. Currently, most of the optical module applications are in the telecommunication market (mainly operators) and the digital communications market (mainly data centers of large internet enterprises); these are also two of the most important application fields of optical communication. 5G makes the first generation cellular communication denser with larger capacities; its peak rate is 30 times that of 4G, its user experience data is 10 times, its wireless interface delay is 1 hour and its traffic density is increased 100 times. Simply put, the two major development features of 5G are high speed and low latency; after the pandemic passes, 5G will protect the future incremental demand of optical modules and make a strong debut.

Market

According to the statistics from OVUM, the scale of the global optical component (including optical modules and various passive components) market can break through the USD 10 billion marks in 2020, and it has an estimated scale of as high as USD 15 billion by 2022 with a compound growth rate of over 9%. The ratio of optical modules was over 60% among optical components (according to OVUM data, the income from optical modules in 2019 was USD 6.6 billion), and it is estimated that in 2022, the income from it is expected to be over USD 9.2 billion due to the 5G trend.

Introduction to GPON optical module

When an optical module is applied for FTTB/N (fiber to the building/Node), its role is to interchange photoelectric signals.

Simply put, there are two major types of optical modules; one is the SFF/SFP optical module and the other is OLT/ONU (optical network unit) optical module. Based on the different types of packages, it can be divided into SFF (small form-factor) and SFP (small form-factor pluggable), etc.; then based on the different plug-in devices, it can also be divided into the two types OLT and ONU (optical network unit).

Nuvoton MCU can satisfy GPON optical modules

The package type for OLT and ONU are both SFP, and the structure of the OLT optical module is very complicated and must work with 64 ONU optical modules to perform signal transmission. The ML51 series can be used as the main control chip for 1.5Gbps ONU optical modules.

Based on the speed, optical modules are categorized into 10Gbps, 40Gbps25Gbps, 25Gbps, and 100Gbps/400Gbps; and due to the 5G trend, the three more popular optical modules used at base stations include 10Gbps, 25Gbps, and 100Gbps. The M0 microcontroller from Nuvoton can support 25G and 100G level optical modules, and the 8051 microcontrollers can support the 10G optical module:

NUC029T

• The basic frequency of the M0 microcontroller is 72MHz
• Improves the transmission performance of 25G and 100G optical modules
• Equipped with 32KB Flash and 4KB of RAM space
• Supports up to 5V of operating voltage, and the operating temperature is also better than the industrial-grade and reached 105 degrees
• 4*4mm QFN33 small packages are provided to satisfy SFP with limited circuit board sizes
• Nuvoton provides free Keil IDE so that customers don’t need to spend additional expenses for purchasing development environments

ML51 series

• The basic frequency of the 8051 microcontrollers is 24MHz
• I²C provides up to 400kHz of transmission speed and is equipped with up to four slave machines with multiple addressing features
• The PWM can provide flexible voltage levels
• As for the packaging, Nuvoton provides 4x4mm QFN33 and 3x3mm QFN20 small packages to satisfy SFP with limited circuit board sizes
• Built-in temperature sensor and five-stage reference voltage to make it easier to connect measuring task voltages
• Provides ESD 8kV and EFT 4.4kV high anti-interference capabilities