Honeywell, Picolight strike VCSEL patent deal
The agreement - signed in November 2003 - applies to four Picolight patents and one Honeywell patent. These all relate to oxide-confined VCSEL designs.
Earlier this week, it was announced that Finisar is to purchase Honeywell’s VCSEL Optical Products business (see Finisar acquires Honeywell VCSEL business). The cross-license agreement will transfer to Finisar when the transaction closes during the first calendar quarter of 2004.
“This cross-license agreement strengthens Picolight’s position as a leader in oxide VCSEL transceivers and components,” said Jack Jewell, Picolight’s chief technology officer. “The oxide confined VCSEL enabled adoption of VCSELs throughout enterprise networks for multi-gigabit applications.”
Jewell added that the same technology is key to Picolight’s new 1310 nm VCSELs transceivers that extend the benefits of enterprise optics to campus, storage network, metro-access and optical Ethernet networks.
Oxide VCSEL sources dominate short-reach Ethernet and Fibre Channel optical interconnects due to their speed, signal integrity, reliability, and manufacturability. The use of oxide confinement in the design enabled VCSEL based transceivers to reach 2 , 4 and 10 Gbit/s data rates.
The technology included in the license agreement pertains to key aspects of oxide VSCELs found in existing and future Picolight products.
