JDSU Demos Tunable PIC

JDSU announced today it has demonstrated a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) that combines a tunable laser and optical modulator, using a technology known as the integrated laser Mach-Zehnder (ILMZ), that will enable it to develop smaller, higher-performance and more cost-effective tunable systems that support faster network speeds.

The new PIC uses a widely tunable laser and a Mach-Zehnder modulator on a single chip small enough to fit on the tip of a finger. It will be incorporated into full-band tunable transponders and transceivers in compact packages, such as 300-PIN small-form factors and pluggable small-form factors starting in 2008. The technology also enables JDSU to support transmission faster than 11.3 Gb/s and is scalable to support 40-G networks.

Tunable lasers are required for the deployment of agile optical networks (AON). AONs are used by service providers to scale network infrastructures and to replace manual operation with network solutions that can quickly respond to traffic over fiber optic networks.

JDSU said its ILMZ-based tunable laser technology will use power and less space in service providers' network equipment racks.

"Integration at the PIC level will help to lower costs and enable high-volume manufacturing that allows us to best serve our customers as network demands continue to increase," said Alex Schoenfelder, vice president and general manager of Integrated Photonics at JDSU.

Recent and dramatic growth in data, voice and video traffic over dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) networks has stimulated demand for tunable lasers, a key element of AONs, as service providers upgrade components within their networks to support more capacity. AONs are based on "dynamic reconfigurability," which allows service providers to simplify network management and optimize network activity by using flexible optical equipment.

"Before the advent of tunable lasers," JDSU said in a statement,"service providers used fixed wavelength lasers, which meant holding expensive inventory to support each wavelength. The overhead associated with managing this inventory was difficult at all levels of the supply chain. Since wavelength activity could not be predicted, providers would often face supply shortages for specific wavelengths, compromising the bandwidth capacity of the network."

Today, a single tunable laser can cover nearly a hundred 50-GHz spaced channels in a DWDM system. They can either be used as a universal source to support a particular wavelength or can be switched to support different wavelengths on demand.

For more information, visit:www.jdsu.com