In brief: Nitronex, Oki, Bookham, Luxtera, Philips
Rockwell Collins and Nitronex hook up
US defense contractor Rockwell Collins is teaming with GaN-on-silicon specialist Nitronex to further develop manufacturing techniques to make wide-bandgap transistors for military applications.
The three-year project, which runs until the end of 2009, has been funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). Nitronex CTO Kevin Linthicum says that the backing from the defense community is a validation of the GaN-on-silicon approach.
Oki targets FTTH
Tokyo-based optoelectronic chip maker Oki Electric will shortly release samples of a 15 mW laser designed for high-speed fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) communications.
Emitting at 1490 nm, the new laser supports 2.5 Gb/s transmission speeds and, thanks to better temperature performance that results from a refined layer structure in the device epiwafer, is now suitable for outdoor use.
"It can now be used for outdoor G-PON equipment," said Oki's Masayuki Tsuboi, president of optical components at the firm. G-PON systems operate at 2.5 Gb/s, whereas GE-PON networks have only half this data transmission speed.
GE-PON deployment is spreading rapidly in Korea and Japan, while North American service providers including Verizon are now rolling out G-PON in the US.
Bookham wins tunable business
Optical communication system vendor Mintera has selected Bookham s iTLA tunable laser for use in its 40 Gb/s transmission products for long-haul and metropolitan networks.
Jim White from Bookham says that the company is seeing "significant market penetration" with its tunable lasers, which are based on a single InP optical chip (see related feature article).
With no moving parts, the patented design allows very fast wavelength tuning and can be used in place of a number of conventional distributed feedback (DFB) components.
Luxtera touts integrated germanium
California-based silicon photonics pioneer Luxtera says that it has adapted a standard CMOS fabrication process to make photodetectors based on germanium.
By adding germanium around optical waveguides on silicon wafers, the firm claims that it could manufacture integrated photodetector components at almost no additional cost to the CMOS fabrication.
"In applications where larger numbers of photodetectors are required, such as chip-to-chip and intra-chip optical connectivity, this invention brings individual photodetector costs from over one dollar to less than a penny," Luxtera said in a statement.
Luxtera used Freescale Semiconductor s 130 nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS process to make the novel chips, and is planning to use the technology in its own transceivers initially.
Philps snaps up LED lighting company
Lighting giant Philips is to increase its presence in the LED business yet further by acquiring the Canadian solid-state lighting specialist TIR Systems
Philips, which already owns the high-end LED chips manufacturer Lumileds, will pay C$75 million for TIR Systems in an all-cash transaction, which is expected to close in June.
