Emcore expands fiber portfolio by buying Alvesta
Alvesta pioneered four-channel parallel optical transceivers for standards developed for the Optical Internetworking Forum, 10G Fibre Channel, 10 gigabit Ethernet and Infiniband. Each transceiver contains four 850 nm VCSELs and four pin detectors, and transmission takes place over a 12-fiber ribbon (four fibers are used in each direction, and four are dark). Alvesta s product revenues from sales of its four-channel products were approximately $5 million in 2001.
Financial terms of the acquisition, which was completed on December 11, were not disclosed. The purchase price includes the acquisition of intellectual property and inventory, and Emcore has hired Alvesta s key design team.
Alvesta s technology will broaden Emcore s existing 12-channel (15 to 40 Gbit/s) product line to include four-channel, 16-channel, and 24-channel duplex transceivers. Emcore will continue to support the parallel optical products released by Alvesta, and will immediately begin production of the four-channel products in its Albuquerque facility.
These parallel optical modules offer the advantages of high optical port density and low power consumption that are required by the next generation optical networking applications. Emcore now possesses Alvesta s inventory of four-channel transceivers and can immediately ship Quadlink MSA-compliant parts to customers.
"Alvesta has consistently been a leader in the development of four-channel parallel optical technology and applications," said Hong Hou, VP of Emcore s fiber-optic division. "We believe that their product technology is a perfect complement to our line of twelve channel parallel optic transceivers and transponders. The acquisition of Alvesta gives us the opportunity to expand our product portfolio to include 4X optics, MSA compliant pluggable transponders and key product technology. We plan to provide these solutions to our existing customers and Alvesta s former customers."