St. Paul, Minn.-based 3M announced the development of chromatic dispersion compensation modules for the full erbium C-band at OFC 2001 in Anaheim, Calif. The company says the modules complement -- and may offer an alternative to -- dispersion-compensating fiber in optical telecommunications systems.

The modules incorporate a fiber Bragg grating with a spectral bandwidth of more than 30 nm that is tuned to the particular dispersion slope of the transmission fiber. 3M noted that the modules, which are the size of a videocassette, have performed well in tests on 10-Gb/s systems.