13 September 2002 -- At ECOC 2002, Japan's Furukawa unveiled its new FITEL Interconnectivity Division - a merger of its Fusion Splicer and MT Connector Groups under manager Colin Bonniface - as well as a range of new equipment from its Optical Components Division.
The Interconnectivity Division demonstrated its S176 Series of Core-Aligning Fusion Splicers, which have a record 11s splice time, and two versions of a new Tabletop Thermal Stripper, which allows users to window strip on fibre and to reduce lengths of fibre needed for splicing.
FITEL makes components for EDFAs and subsystems for long-haul applications, such as high-power 1480nm and 980nm pump lasers, precision GFF and customised optical amplifiers. It has also expanded its product lines to include source signal lasers, mux/demux and OADM modules suitable for use in upgradeable long-haul and metro/access network systems.
At ECOC FITEL also unveiled its full range of signal laser products, comprising tunable DFB lasers, 50GHz wavelength-locked lasers, and 10Gbit/s electro-absorption and modulated lasers. FITEL also launched its high-performance thin-film based mux/demux and OADM modules, including steep-edge 4skip0 filters. Other products also unveiled include athermal arrayed waveguide gratings, PMD compensators and tunable dispersion compensators.
Also, since the acquisition of OFS, Furukawa FITEL has been working closely with OFS FITEL on joint development projects. At ECOC, both companies displayed what is claimed to be the world's first Raman module with dispersion compensator.