Nova Crystals Proves its Proprietary 10 Gb/s 1310nm Surface Emitting Laser Design
Source: Nova Crystals
Nova Crystals, Inc., a developer and manufacturer of high-end laser components for fiber-optic data/telecommunications applications, will announce at OFC 2001 (Booth #856) that it has achieved an important technological milestone by proving a 1310nm vertical cavity surface emitting laser design (VCSEL) for 10Gb/s operation. VCSELs are lasers that can be fabricated and packaged much more economically than the more standard edge emitting lasers widely used in telecommunications systems - but were previously limited to speeds of 2.5 Gb/s. Preliminary devices fabricated at Nova Crystals deliver 7 mW of power, exhibiting single spatial mode and a single polarization state output. Thus, Nova Crystals VCSELs show the potential to become the first practical 10 Gb/s VCSEL source for metro, access and LAN applications, and offers these markets a high bandwidth, lower cost alternative to the legacy Fabry-Perot, edge emitting laser diodes.
In late 2000, Nova Crystals announced the world s first high-power commercial 2.5 Gb/s (OC-48) VCSEL operating at 1310 nm. The company is presently ramping up the OC-48 lasers to production. Nova Crystals management announced that it would begin sampling 10 Gb/s (OC-192) lasers with customers in 3Q 2001. Nova Crystal s OC-192 lasers will complement its suite of 1310 nm VCSELs also operating at OC-12, and OC-3.
"Nova Crystal s proprietary VCSEL technology is advantageous in many ways; for example, it allows numerous functional components, such as modulators and power amplifiers, to be integrated monolithically on a single chip," notes Yu-Hwa Lo, Ph.D., Nova Crystals Chief Technical Officer. "As we move towards manufacturing the device, we will continue to refine its operating characteristics, such as its spectral linewidth, temperature sensitivity, and extinction ratio."
"Attaining the 10 Gb/s performance level is really a watershed event in the long wavelength VCSEL landscape," adds Felix Ejeckam, Nova Crystals Chief Executive Officer. "It enables VCSELs to successfully penetrate much further into the optical network, and, ultimately, positions them as replacements for the distributed feedback (DFB) lasers that now dominate long-haul applications."
"10 Gbps source lasers have achieved wide spread deployment in long-haul systems over the past several years. We expect a similar adoption of 10 Gbps speeds to take place in the metro market, both for SONET/SDH interfaces, and for 10 Gbps Ethernet applications" adds John Lively, Director Optical Components Research, RHK Inc. - telecommunications industry analysts. "The Nova Crystals VCSEL based device is one example of the sort of innovative lower priced products we believe are needed for the metro market."
"The 1310 nm VCSEL promises to change the market of datacom by increasing the reach of 10 Gb/s modules to ranges previously served only by discrete 1310 nm Fabry-Perot lasers and well beyond the range of 850 nm VCSELs," confirms John Day, President of telecommunications market research firm Strategies Unlimited, Inc.
Nova Crystals, Inc., founded in September 1998, develops and manufactures high-end fiber-optic data and telecommunications components based on their proprietary chip process and wafer technologies. Nova Crystals is a privately held corporation backed by strategic and venture capital. The company was founded by leading fiber-optic researchers at Cornell University, and is headquartered in San Jose, CA.
For more information, contact Gerald Sheridan Nova Crystals, Inc. 174 Component Drive, San Jose, CA, 95131 (408) 434-6682, FAX (408) 434-6330. E-mail: Gerald_Sheridan@novacrystals.com Web Address: http://www.novacrystals.com
E-mail: Gerald_Sheridan@novacrystals.com
Web site: http://www.novacrystals.com
