OFC update: DWDM and new lasers dominate

17 Jun 2002

40 Gbps systems and advanced fiber technology also feature

The first day of the Optical Fiber Conference (OFC) in Anaheim, US has produced a raft of new products designed to move optical communication towards the next generation.

Wavesplitter Technologies unveiled a 25 GHz, 160-channel dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) module that transmits at 10 Gbits/s while Lightchip announced wavelength management subsystems designed to manage bi-directional, high-channel-count traffic in a DWDM-based optical networking environment in harsh climate conditions. Corning and Nortel have collaborated to present a Metro DWDM demonstration, featuring Corning's MetroCor fiber and the Nortel Networks' OPTera Metro 5000 optical networking platform operating at 10 Gbps.

Corvis announced its CorWave LR DWDM transmission system, which integrates raman and soliton technologies to deliver up to 3.2 Terabit/s capacity, claimed to be the highest in the industry. Intense Photonics, a European startup debuting at OFC, demonstrated how its new monolithic process for IC fabrication, claimed to improve performance and yield and aimed at DWDM component manufacture, has been applied to an innovative design for 980 nm erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) pump lasers.

Coherent has introduced a high-power EDFA pump laser for DWDM applications, the OPSL 980-500, that is claimed to be the first pump laser on the market to provide more than 500 mW of "kink-free" output power from a single-mode fiber-pigtail. Another high-power surface-emitting laser was introduced by Novalux, which features the Novalux Extended Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (NECSEL) technology and is claimed to offer a 100-fold increase in power over other surface-emitting lasers. Nortel announced the industry's first micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) -based tunable lasers for 40 Gbps systems, scheduled for availability in the fourth quarter of this year.

New fiber technology was showcased by Lucent and Pirelli. Lucent has announced its TruePhase family of polarization-maintaining fibers designed for high-capacity systems and devices. The fibers provide an unprecedented level of control over polarized light transmission and are offered in application-specific wavelengths. The Advanced FreeLight fiber is the latest in a line of non-zero dispersion optical fibers from Pirelli, designed for long-distance, high-bit-rate applications and featuring a reduction of 50% in its polarization mode dispersion ratio.