February 18, 2003 - Fibera (Santa Clara, CA) today announced a product breakthrough, Fabry-Perot athermal ITU reference filters. Based on a proprietary technology that is patent-pending, the filters are compact, hermetically sealed, offer high accuracy and are available in two series -- Fabry Perot ITU Filter (FPIF) and Fabry-Perot ITU Reference (FPIR).
FPIF, a transmission ITU filter, and FPIR, a reflection notch filter, are available for general shipment. Because FPIF and FPIR can be customized to meet requirements of individual customers, a variety of versions will be created over time.
Athermal ITU reference filters are a new product family for Fibera and represents the company's debut at the component level. The company also offers products at the module level -- wavelength lockers for discrete (external) or integrated (internal) platforms, frequency stabilization circuits, and an evaluation solution (hardware and software) for its wavelength lockers.
FPIF and FPIR are intended for use in two markets -- instrumentation and telecommunications. Potential customers in instrumentation include manufacturers and end users of optical spectrum analyzers, optical wavelength meters, optical performance monitors, optical channel monitors, tunable filters with ITU stops and other test and measurement instruments requiring built-in wavelength reference.
In telecommunications, potential customers are subsystem or system equipment vendors. The filters can be used in network monitoring equipment to monitor performance, in particular wavelength stability in frequency-agile, tunable optical networks. They also can be built into tunable lasers and tunable filters.
"In both series of Fabry-Perot filters, Fibera is providing a technical breakthrough in a low-cost optical component at a time when our customers are experiencing strong pricing pressure. The filters are an excellent complement to our existing line of wavelength lockers," said John Tsai, president, Fibera. "Not only are FPIF and FPIR the industry's first Fabry-Perot filters, they can be used for any application where a stable ITU reference is needed and offer the unique functionality of thermally stable ITU grid reference of +/- 1.25 GHz or better."
FPIF is ideal for wavelength stabilization in transmission and DWDM tunable filter applications. It can be used to stabilize the laser frequency to within +/- 1.25 GHz for typical channel spacing -- 25, 50 and 100 GHz -- as specified by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
FPIR is a reflective device for use in calibration applications, such as DWDM channel monitoring, optical spectrum analyzer/wavelength meter calibration, and tunable filter ITU channel setting applications.
Founded in 2001, Fibera designs and manufactures advanced wavelength management fiber-optic products, such as athermal discrete (external)/integrated (internal) wavelength lockers and Fabry-Perot ITU filters for 100-GHz, 50-GHz and 25-GHz spacing; frequency stabilization circuits and wavelength standards.