How To Get Longer Industrial USB3.0 / 3.1 Cables

Active optical cable solutions can improve the problem that most copper cables cannot extend the connection distance, and optical cables can also avoid EMI/ISI problems.

AOC optical fiber transmission scheme has great benefits

Among many transmission wire fiber application solutions, currently using AOC (Active Optical Cable), it is easier to use AOC technology for commercial interfaces such as USB 3.1, Thunderbolt, HDMI, etc., to use AOC technology to change the original copper cable into an optical cable application environment, easily The transmission interface can also enjoy the benefits brought by the fiber optic cable, for example, the transmission distance is longer and the signal quality will be relatively improved.

In the existing AOC solution, in order to maintain the electrical specifications of the original transmission wire connector, only the bidirectional signal transmission part uses a photoelectric conversion module to convert the electrical signal into an optical signal for transmission. Although the technical complexity is not high, the complexity of signal conversion is not high. In order to meet the required level of electrical signals, the performance requirements of real-time processing are also relatively high.

Especially in long-distance applications, with the existing commercial interfaces such as USB 3.1, Thunderbolt, HDMI, Displayport, and more than 100 meters of transmission connection requirements, the existing copper cables are bound to be unable to be used directly, and repeaters must be used. Improving the signal quality will also increase the transmission cost, and will also affect the transmission quality and stability of the interface! If the active optical cable technology is used to integrate the transmission interface, and the optical cable is used for transmission, the transmission signal characteristics of the optical fiber are used. It can easily meet the needs of extending the distance of more than 100 meters, and it can also easily build low-cost medium-distance transmission applications up to 150 meters.

The AOC method can extend the transmission distance to more than 300 meters

At present, in the development of AOC active fiber optic cables, in terms of application requirements, the application market of HDMI is the most significant. At present, relevant solutions have been launched, and AOC application solutions of Thunderbolt and USB 3.1 have also been launched one after another. The target application directions are all It is mainly based on the medium-distance transmission application requirements of 25-150 meters, even if the distance is more than 150 meters, it can also be expanded with the existing long-distance optical fiber transmission scheme.

In addition to external transmission interfaces, such as USB 3.1, Thunderbolt, HDMI, and Displayport, actively moving into AOC application solutions, in fact, in the PC industry, the active development of high-speed transmission interfaces for internal devices will also make AOC application solutions a trend. New technology solution application solutions, for example, in the application of advanced internal high-speed transmission interfaces such as SAS (Serial Attached SCSI), PCIe (PCI Express), etc., it is also actively expanding the extended external application requirements of related interfaces. Facing this In the market development trend, the use of copper cable application solutions for data transmission will inevitably make development projects face product development and verification problems such as EMI and copper cable power consumption. However, if the optical cable solution is used to replace the copper cable transmission medium, the EMI problem can be limited. Improvements are made in the transmission endpoint or in the chassis. For the external requirements of the internal interface, the optical fiber cable can avoid external electromagnetic interference and additional design problems, which can make the design goal of the external interface easier to achieve.

There are many EMI/EMC/ISI problems in copper cables, which can be improved by fiber optic solutions

High-speed transmission is carried out using a copper cable medium, which usually causes EMI/EMC (Electro-Magnetic Interference/Compatibility) problems, and also generates ISI (Inter Symbol Interference) interference problems. When designing physical cables, it is necessary to increase the copper cable diameter, Import design schemes such as Equalizer circuit and signal compensation, which will make the related design of the interface more complicated, which not only increases the design cost but also increases the circuit complexity of the related interface. The consumption must be increased, and the wires become thicker and heavier. The overall application scheme not only increases the cost of interface connectors, related circuits, and cables but also affects the marketing and sales needs of terminal design products.