Custom Optical Systems & Instruments

iXblue, the recognized worldwide PIONEER for innovative OPTICAL MODULATION SOLUTION

iXblue is an industrial group that is recognized worldwide for the design, development and manufacture of optical modulation solutions. Our integrated modulation ModBox systems are Optical Transmitter solutions based on external modulation. The range of products is focused on high speed and complex Telecommunication modulation schemes such as (D)QPSK, PAM, DPSK, NRZ, Sub-nanosecond optical pulses generation for fibres lasers, high speed and linear modulation, CS-SSB, etc…. covering a wide optical spectral window from 780 nm to 2000 nm.

iXblue, CUSTOM DESIGNS based on CUSTOMER SPECIFICATION

Our standard ModBox portfolio can be expanded to custom designs to provide a technical solution adapted to your requirements. With in-depth knowledge in Photonics, RF and hyper-frequency, electronics and interfacing, iXblue has the inter-disciplinary expertise to integrate complex electro-optical systems and sub-systems. As such, we stand ready to assist our customers with the selection, definition, procurement, installation, and configuration – hardware and software – of your ModBox for optimal performance.

We provide such services to our customers for prototyping or volume production.

iXblue, COMPETENCES to assist customers with their projects

The ModBox is a concentrate of Photonics, RF & Hyper-frequency, electronics and Software technologies. iXblue has these competences with specialized staff in each of these domains.

The Photonics is the core of our technology. iXblue masters the entire chain of LiNbO3 modulators, from the chip design to the packaging. The ModBox uses the best of our modulators; they are screened and selected for their best performance: low insertion loss, high extinction ratio, high optical output, wide bandwidth, etc…  The ModBox ensures the best optical performances from our LiNbO3 modulators.
As a doped optical or passive fibers manufacturer, our optical competence are expanding to the management of optical amplifiers, passive couplers, beam combiners, and other passive optical components, etc…

The modulation cannot operate without electronic and RF signals generation and management. A dedicated specialized staff is allocated to the RF and hyper-frequency domains. iXblue designs its own RF amplifiers built with a cascade of MMIC’s (Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit) based on the Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) technology. Our electronics competence is used to electrically feed, monitor, control all the optical and RF components embedded into the ModBox. These PCB boards are developed internally, using the state of the art multi-layers PCB and class 4 to class 6 waveguides.

A custom ModBox involves a new components layout: an engineering team realizes a dedicated ModBox platform and chassis. For such new mechanical design of the box, base plates and to model the circuit boards, we are using the software designer tools Altium and SolidWorks. The ModBox system meets the European standards and are compliant with the EMC and optical norms EN61326-1 Ed. 2006 / NF EN 60825-1 & EN 60825-2 Ed.2014.

For any new system, a bespoke software is developed to accommodate a customer’s particular preferences and expectations, featuring such as application monitoring, control and supervision, data-transfer, setting, etc… We work with popular programming languages including C, C++, Qt, .NET framework (C#, VB.net, Visual C++) and Python to work on leading platforms such as Windows, GNU/Linux, and Android. iXblue provides systems compatible with the EPICS software environment which is used in many large-scale sciences facilities, such as particle accelerators or synchrotron light sources.