Ultracompact 4 × 3.4 Gbps optoelectronic package for an active optical HDMI cable

Refering to the increasing demand for extended transmission distances of high-definition video in consumer electronics we present a composite optoelectronic high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) cable that replaces the four electrical transition-minimized differential signal video channels by a 4×3.4 Gb/s optical fiber link, the currently maximum specified bit rate. This improves the signal quality after 10 m transmission compared to a passive electrical cable significantly and enables even longer cable lengths or higher transmission rates. At the same time we developed a compact package of both the optical sub-assembly and its adjoining control ICs that fits inside the cable connector. We outline the package assembly and present basic transmission characteristics, as well as confirm 1080p video transmission over 10 m.

Introduction

Video in consumer electronics is nowadys dominantly displayed in high-definition (HD) with a resolution of . One common standard to transmit the uncompressed signal from the video source to the video sink is the high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) that carries the data over four transition-minimizded differential signal (TMDS) lines at a maximum bit rate of currently 3.4 Gb/s per channel. Together with an advanced signal recovery at the sink the video can hence be transported over a few meters.