Optical Transceiver & Operating Temperature

Dec 17, 2024

As one of the most important parameters of optical transceiver, operating temperature can affect other parameters greatly. When the environmental temperature of the optical transceiver changes, accordingly its operating current and other parameters will change, thus affecting the data transmission. The extended-grade and the industrial-grade are developed to address this problem.

The commercial-grade (C-Temp) transceiver can meet most of the applications with its operating temperature 0~ +70°C; and industrial-grade (I-Temp) one usually installed in harsh environment for taking the advantage of its operating temperature -40°C~+85°C, which can work in the harsh environment.

In addition, the I-Temp transceiver is designed with hardened electrical components and housings to ensure its service life. Matched with industrial Ethernet switches, the I-Temp transceivers are generally used in industrial Ethernet scenarios, like factory automation, railways and intelligent transportation systems (ITS), power substations, oceans, oil, gas, mining and other industries. And the I-Temp transceiver can meet the requirements of long-term and stable transmission in harsh working environments. The C-Temp transceiver should only undergo the room temperature aging tests, while the I-Temp one has to undergo high and low temperature aging tests.

To make the optical transceiver meet the industrial temperature standard, the following aspects need to be improved:

Hardware

The chips and lasers in I-Temp transceiver must use products that meet industrial temperature levels, and they need to be measured and tested under high temperature conditions.

Temperature compensation

When operating temperature under zero, in order to ensure the stable optical transmitting power, the I-Temp transceiver will have to perform the function of temperature compensation.

Physical cooling

To ensure stable operation at high temperature, I-Temp transceiver should be designed with the self-cooling function. Usually heat-dissipation silicone is adopted for physical cooling.

In summary, I-Temp transceiver can operate during larger temperature range than that the C-Temp can, and they have more stable function too. Therefore, in outdoor environments with large temperature differences, such as base stations, I-Temp transceiver must be selected. Compared with the C-Temp, they are safer and more reliable. For indoor environment with stable temperature, C-Temp one can be selected considering the cost.