Tributaries has announced the arrival of Aurora - an active fiber optic HDMI cable certified by DPL Labs to transport HDMI signals at data rates up to 18Gbps over cable lengths from 10 meter (32ft) to 30 meter (98ft).
Engineered as a hybrid fiber optic cable, Aurora features lass transports the video/audio/clock and control signals while the copper carries the Digital Display Channel (DDC) responsible for the 2-way communication of EDID and HDCP. The components required for the electrical/optical/electrical conversions are efficiently contained in the connector head shells. Power is provided by way of a USB 2.0 receptacle on each connector. USB cables and 120V adapters are provided.
The brain of the cable, originally designed for military applications, is an optical microchip encased in the HDMI source-connector. Embedded in the microchip are four vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers, VCSELs, semiconductor-based laser diodes that emit an optical beam perpendicular to the fiber surface. Each TMDS modulated beam is reflected off a mirror and injected into a multi-mode fiber optic glass material producing four TMDS optic channels. The optical glass fibers are surrounded by highly reflective OM3 (10Gig) cladding. The sink-end connector houses Photo Diode receptors that decode the TMDS modulated light beams and convert them back to an electrical HDMI signal.
www.tributariescable.com