NetTest, a worldwide provider of testing, monitoring, management and optical component solutions for advanced and converged networks, announced the release of its new Flat Top MICS, a mux/demux component for multi-wavelength optical networks. The Flat Top MICS is a flat-top athermal component requiring no power to maintain temperature control across the entire operating range, thereby eliminating electric consumption, equipment and electronics-based failures. It features a low 5 dB insertion loss and an ultra wide flat top response of 400 pm at -1 dB, providing system designers with a "near perfect" optical MICS solution that enables new benchmarks to be set in design flexibility, performance and cost.
The Flat Top MICS addresses power consumption in optical network design. Electrical power is costly and restricts choices in system design. To meet this challenge, NetTest has developed its MICS component using smart, free space optics technology. Therefore, unlike alternative AWG technology, the Flat Top MICS requires no external electrical hook-up or electric power to operate. The resultant design benefits are notable: the Flat Top MICS operates over a wide temperature range; can be placed anywhere in the system, not just on an electrical board, for more compact designs; minimizes wavelength distortions; and reduces the overall number of required optical amplifiers, which saves system space and operational costs.
NetTest has a long history of being a supplier in free space optics technology for the DWDM market. In particular, its complete line of MICS DWDM multiplexers/demultiplexers provides a smart solution for the overwhelming increase in transmission capacity driven by a higher channel count combined with tighter spacing. Based on a proprietary diffraction-grating design, MICS features 16 to 40 channels with 50 or 100 GHz spacing. Reaching the technological milestone of a 5 dB insertion loss continues this tradition with the new flat-top response.
Additional Key Features:
In addition to the benefits derived from its athermal characteristic, the Flat Top MICS provides customers:
* Superior reliability: The Flat Top MICS has been tested to Telecordia 1209 and 1221 requirements, ensuring that the component design and manufacturing process are extremely reliable in production environments.
* Just-in-Time Production Flexibility: Based on a new NetTest design and manufacturing process, customers can choose or alter their Flat Top MICS specifications for channel count, wavelength and spacing just prior to production. This capability gives system designers new levels of flexibility to order in advance the total number of channels they require, but decide at the last minute the exact wavelength allocation. This reduces development times and inventoried stockpiles.
NetTest will demonstrate the new Flat Top MICS for the first time at ECOC in Amsterdam, October 1-3, at booth #707.
About NetTest:
NetTest is a provider of testing, monitoring and management systems, as well as a supplier of optical network components, across both the optical and network layers of communications networks.