Technical Insight
Memscap establishes active subsidiary (Fiber News)
Memscap (Grenoble, France) has established in Finland a subsidiary that will focus on active optical components for metropolitan and access networks. The new company, Memscap Oy, has entered into a licensing and development agreement with Finland s Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) to enable Memscap to extend its product line to include source components for the growing plastic optical fiber (POF) market. POF is seen as an inexpensive means of connecting metro and local loops with optical fiber for high-bandwidth data transmission. Under the agreement, Memscap will license from ORC several products that are immediately suitable for commercialization. These include 650 nm resonant cavity (RC) LEDs and 690 nm VCSELs. Memscap and ORC are also working on a range of edge emitters and VCSELs covering the transmission windows for most fiber types. MEMS-based tunable sources for WDM applications are also in development. Initially ORC will provide intellectual property and skilled staff for low-volume production of laser components, while Memscap ramps up production capacity over the next 18 months. "Memscap s RC-LEDs in particular offer advantages for short-haul POF transmission," said Mihail Dumitrescu, director of active optical components at Memscap Oy. "These benefits include operation at the fibers attenuation minimum, 30% coupling efficiency without any supplementary optics, and eye safety. These RC-LEDs hold the world record in speed for red wavelength spontaneous emitters, achieving error-free transmission rates beyond 622 Mbit/s."
