Pirelli forms MIT partnership

17 Jun 2002

Pirelli invests USD 2 million in nanophotonics research alliance with MIT.

Courtesy of Fibers.Org

Italian optical fiber manufacturer Pirelli has entered into a five-year photonics research agreement with the Microphotonics Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Pirelli's high-tech research center, Pirelli Labs, will invest USD 2 million during the first year of the agreement, under which Pirelli and MIT researchers will work on a new generation of nanotechnology-based integrated optical systems.

"Nanotechnology constitutes the future of optical fiber technologies, as it will permit the miniaturization and large-scale integration of optical components with a consequent reduction in the manufacturing costs as production volumes increase," said Giorgio Grasso, CEO of Pirelli Labs-Optical Innovation. "This agreement further strengthens the Pirelli leadership in the research and development of ever more advanced products and solutions."

Pirelli says that its goal is to utilize all of the wavelengths available in a fiber-optic cable to maximize the amount of data transmitted on each fiber and create a breakthrough in the field of broadband telecommunications.

"Pirelli's vision for the use of nanotechnology for photonic integrated circuits is coincident with the research program of the MIT Microphotonics Center," said Lionel Kimerling, director of the MIT Microphotonics Center. "We expect to benefit greatly from the applications focus that this industrial partnership brings."

Pirelli will develop the results of the joint research and says that it expects to make it available to the optical communications systems market by the beginning of 2004.

Author
David Collier is editor of Fibers.Org.