February 27, 2006 Wilmington, MA -- DuPont Photonics Technologies has introduced its iROAD 4000, an integrated 40-channel reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) designed to provide dynamic remote provisioning of add/drop nodes in metropolitan optical networks. The company says the device enables high wavelength management flexibility at reduced levels of capex and opex.
Based on the company's Telcordia-qualified library of optical building blocks and planar lightwave circuit (PLC) integration technology, the company says the ROADM integrates arrays of 2 x 1 optical switches, variable optical attenuators (VOA), and power monitors to allow for a compact form factor with built-in channel monitoring and automatic channel balancing capabilities.
The company says the iROAD 4000 has demonstrated significant advantages compared to alternative platforms and has won praise from system customers and carriers. The company says its PLC processes are similar to those of the semiconductor IC industry and are ideal for automated high-volume manufacturing.
"Our ROADM solutions have lower PDL, insertion loss, and power dissipation compared with other PLC-based solutions, and offer significant reduction in cost against wavelength selective switch and wavelength blocker based solutions," comments Marcelo van de Kamp, general manager of DuPont Photonics. "The solid state optics approach also greatly improves manufacturability and reliability."
The company says it's currently shipping the iROAD 4000 40-channel ROADM in engineering volumes. Live demonstrations will be held at next month's OFC/NFOEC show in Anaheim, Calif.