"First ever" communications technologies announced at OFC/NFOEC 2007
March 27, 2007, Anaheim, CA--At this year's Optical Fiber Communication (OFC) Conference and the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference (NFOEC)--now combined as OFC/NFOEC and taking place March 25-29--a number of industry firsts have been announced, including the first tunable DWDM transceiver, the first CMOS silicon-based tunable optical waveguide equalizer, and a 980 nm laser diode pump module that is first to achieve an output power of 750 mW.
Pirelli Broadband Solutions (Milan, Italy), the broadband access and photonics company within the Pirelli Group, will demonstrate the first tunable dense-wavelength division multiplexer (DWDM) XFP transceiver for 10 GB/s applications. Adding tunability to an XFP form factor provides carriers with a module that is 10 times smaller and consumes four times less power than standard tunable modules. Pirelli's tunable XFP are offered in high output power or high-dispersion tolerant formats, and are full compliant with the XFP multi-source agreement.
Alcatel-Lucent announced that it has demonstrated the first CMOS silicon-based tunable optical waveguide equalizer in a paper presented at the OFC/NFOEC conference. Researchers from Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs in New Jersey described how they had developed a versatile guided-wave equalizing optical filter fabricated entirely in a CMOS manufacturing line--the sort of technology that produces computer integrated circuits today. This research will enable telecom providers to move from using specialized and large optical networking devices to a new generation of low cost, mass-produced silicon chips that combine electronics and photonics in a single chip--opening the door to new optical networking architectures that could usher in new sorts of broadband deployments and applications.
Bookham (San Jose, CA), a provider of optical components, modules and subsystems, announced the launch of what is believed to be the world's most powerful 980 nm pump laser module. The module, which delivers a 'kink-free' power output of 750mW, is the latest in the Bookham LC96 pump module portfolio and forms a key component of next-generation erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs). The increased output power of the new pump module will also enable significant cost reductions in terrestrial legacy systems by reducing the number of pumps required.
An OFC/NFOEC conference review will be published in the April 1, 2007 issue of the Optoelectronics Report newsletter. For more information, or to subscribe to Laser Focus World's Optoelectronics Report newsletter, visit www.laserfocusworld.com.