Agility Communications Showcases Integrated Electro-absorption Modulator Laser Technology

Tunable Laser Leader Breaks Barriers To Cost, Space, and Assembly For 2.5- and 10-Gigabit Metro-Core Market Applications

Santa Barbara, CA. Agility Communications(TM), Inc., the award-winning leader of widely tunable lasers for metro, switching, and long-haul markets, announces today successful integration of an Electro-absorption Modulator (EAM) onto its widely tunable, Sampled-Grating Distributed Bragg Reflector (SG-DBR) laser technology. With this achievement, Agility further demonstrates its lead position by creating lasers that provide the fastest time to market, while breaking down the barriers to cost, space, and assembly for producing large quantities of high-power, widely tunable lasers for metro-core market applications. Agility s SG-DBR platform, the first commercially viable architecture to integrate many functions on a single chip, supports the 2.5- and 10-gigabit markets across the full C-band, while meeting requirements of reliability and low cost.

Agility Communications, Inc., is pioneering breakthrough optical networking infrastructure solutions that dramatically reduce the costs and complexity of supporting agile networks. Developed for Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexed (DWDM) networks, Agility s first products, high-power, widely tunable lasers provide communications companies with far greater bandwidth flexibility than what is currently available with fixed-wavelength or narrowly tunable lasers. Agility s lasers help communications providers increase network capacity, maximize existing network resources, streamline the planning process for network growth, and deliver bandwidth on demand through simple point-and-click provisioning. Earlier this year, Agility was the first company to announce a 10-mW widely tunable laser for long-haul applications. The powerful laser can tune to more than 90 ITU (International Telecommunications Union) channels.

Details of Agility s technological advancements were reported by Michael C. Larson, senior device engineer, at the National Fiber Optic Engineer Conference (NFOEC) held recently. The paper, titled, "Monolithic, Widely Tunable, Sample-Grating DBR Lasers," was co-authored by Greg Fish, chief development engineer and co-founder of Agility, and Larson. In the presentation, Larson highlighted, for the first time, new technology innovations from Agility in tunable lasers that will span all application segments, from access/enterprise through metropolitan and long-haul networks.

By eliminating the need to add more components in the network and instead integrating multiple functions onto a single chip, Agility provides carriers the lowest total cost of ownership in the industry, dramatically lowering capital and operating expenditures. Because Agility lasers are capable of supporting high-power applications, the need for optical amplifiers in the network is reduced. Agility s unique "all-monolithic" architecture, based on Indium Phosphide, allows the company to easily integrate the Electro-absorption Modulator with the laser on a single chip. Offering the smallest footprint solution in the industry, the Widely Tunable EML reduces space requirements and maintenance overhead.

The ability to integrate the amplifier and modulator on one chip provides the fastest time to volume without impacting device yield. Agility is the first and only company to implement full-stream automation of widely tunable lasers, from a single semiconductor chip -- substantially reducing the manufacturing costs and delivering quality products in quantities that support customer needs today. Other companies production techniques to achieve high power in tunable lasers involve combining multiple chips and complicated optical packaging, processes that are difficult and expensive to automate.

A beta customer base of 30 companies including new startups such as Atoga, Network Photonics, and Mahi are sampling and using Agility s 3040 tunable laser to provide up to 4 mW of optical output power to any C-band wavelength in less than 10 milliseconds. Agility s 3040 laser is designed for DWDM systems where the capability to change wavelength on demand over the entire "C" band window of 1525nm to 1565nm with 50GHz channel spacing is essential.

"Introduction of a widely tunable EML puts Agility ahead of their competitors and demonstrates the potential of monolithically integrated devices based on Indium Phosphide," said Vladimir Kozlov, analyst with RHK, Inc. "By positioning this product as a tunable transmitter for metro systems, Agility is targeting one of the hottest segments in today s market."

"With the EML technology, Agility is again setting the pace for innovation and automation to deliver lasers to our customers, providing them the lowest total cost of ownership," said Ron Nelson, president and CEO of Agility. "The significance of the EML technology is that we re able to integrate both the amplifier and modular and still get the same excellent yields we ve achieved in producing our other lasers. By integrating many capabilities onto one chip, we lower the overall capital and operating expenditures for carriers. We re confident that the 30 customers sampling and using our lasers will agree that our strategy is working."

About Agility Communications, Inc. Agility Communications, Inc., the leader in pioneering widely tunable lasers for metro, switching, and long-haul markets, is providing the lowest total cost of ownership and dramatically reducing the costs and complexity of supporting agile networks. The company has been named one of Light Reading s Top 10 Privately Held Companies, has won the Technologic Partners Optix 2001 Investor s Choice award, and was listed in UPSIDE Magazine s "Hot 100" private companies for 2001.

Founded by a team of optical networking and semiconductor veterans in Oct. 1998, Agility is headquartered in Santa Barbara, California and has manufacturing facilities in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Agility investors include Amerindo Investment Advisors, Comdisco Ventures, Dell Ventures, Morgenthaler Ventures, Mustang Ventures, U.S. Venture Partners, and Worldview Technology Partners. For more information about Agility solutions visit www.agility.com, send email to info@agility.com or call 805-690-1700.

Note to Editors: Agility Communications and the Agility logo are trademarks of Agility Communications, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other company and product names mentioned are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Contact: Agility Communications Lisa Blaisdell Tel: 949/347-1040 lisa@trainerpr.com