March 2, 2005 San Jose, CA -- NeoPhotonics, a leading supplier of integrated optical, planar lightwave circuit (PLC) modules for optical networking applications, will showcase two new product lines of AWG and PLC-based products at next week's OFC/NFOEC 2005 conference. The company says the new products are designed for network equipment manufacturers seeking to address emerging FTTP and FTTC/N markets while meeting carriers' requirements for low-cost, high-performance equipment.

"Our new AWG and PLC-based products will drive down costs throughout the PON supply chain, potentially making highly-desirable FTTP broadband services available to millions of people," contends Tim Jenks, CEO of NeoPhotonics.

The company's portfolio of PLC-based biplexers and triplexers for "triple play" applications all feature duplex operation over a single fiber. The company says its PLC technology guarantees a low manufacturing cost with a high yield unmatched by conventional thin film filter -based devices. The transceivers cover both FSAN standards for BPON (ITU G.983) and GPON (ITU G.984), as well as the IEEE Standard 802.3ah for G-EPON.

The company is also complementing its PLC-based portfolio of 1xN power splitters with the introduction of a comprehensive line of 2xN power splitters, which, according to the company, will allow carriers to insert an overlay signal into a passive optical network (PON). According to the company, this feature is an efficient way to combine an analog video overlay signal with the standard bi-directional digital signal. The company's power splitters operate over the outside plant temperature range of -40 to +85C and meet all other criteria contained in Telcordia GR-1209/1221.

Tthe company says it will also announce the availability of its line of fully athermal and fully passive arrayed waveguide grating (AWG)-based DWDM Mux/DeMux modules for central office and outdoor applications. The company says it has developed, qualified, and is now shipping an Athermal AWG that has equivalent performance to standard AWGs but requires no electrical power for stabilization. Units are available in 16- to 40-channel configurations for 100 GHz channel spacing, and are compliant with Telcordia 1209 and 1221 reliability specifications.

"A potentially very large market is emerging for Athermal AWGs in new proposals for WDM-PON systems, such as that recently announced by Korea Telecom. These systems would use Athermal AWGs in very large numbers to provide more than 100 Mbit/sec service in FTTP applications," continues Jenks. "Our scaleable approach delivers the high volume and low cost that are essential for carriers to deploy these 'wavelength per user' systems."

Samples of all announced products will be on display at next week's OFC conference in NeoPhotonics booth 1657.