ECOC: Happy days are here again
SEPTEMBER 26, 2007 By Stephen Hardy -- Last week's European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC) at Berlin's International Congress Center saw a revitalized marketplace -- and, show organizers hope, more attendees than they've seen since 2000's event in Amsterdam.
Several exhibitors touted the show, which ran September 16-20, as the best ECOC they had attended in years. While the exhibit floor layout was somewhat reminiscent of an airport terminal, with halls radiating from hubs, exhibitors called it a significant improvement from the venue at last year's show in Cannes, which they described as a low-ceilinged parking garage.
Several companies used the show as a launching platform, either to introduce themselves to the market or to publicize significant corporate milestones. For example, IntexyS Photonics (search for IntexyS) CEO Jean-Charles Garcia and Vice President of Sales and Marketing Worldwdie Terry Thomas used the show to describe how the company has leveraged last year's 5 million euro Series A funding round to get its highly integrated parallel optics technology into production. Working with GaAs, InP, and silicon technologies, the company currently provides silicon optical benches that leverage flip-chip and passive alignment capabilities to integrate laser, receiver, and passive elements for parallel optical applications. The company currently specializes in custom designs but has its eye on developing standard products for the same space. The IntexyS spokesmen said that the emerging 10-Gbit/sec InfiniBand and 40-Gigabit Ethernet markets hold interest.
The IntexyS offerings leverage driver technology from IPtronics A/S (search for IPtronics), which also unveiled its product line at ECOC. According to Director of Sales and Marketing Jesper Bek, the company specializes in silicon for parallel optical interconnects for server, computing, backplane, and board-to-board applications. The company works closely with STMicroelectronics, which currently provides front-end and foundry services. IPtronics currently offers a quad VCSEL driver and a quad TIA/LIA. In addition to its work with IntexyS, Bek also pointed to a parallel module in NEC's booth as an example of his company's technology in action. New products for 12-channel applications should be available in three months, he added.
Meanwhile, while it didn't have a booth at the show, executives of PhotonIC Corp. (search for PhotonIC) quietly worked the show floor. The Los Angeles-based startup, which has ex-Bookham chief Giorgio Anania as one of its board members, is integrating photonics, electronics, and passive elements for interconnect and sensor applications via its own wafer fab in Honolulu. The company says its technology applies to silicon, silicon-on-insulator, and III-V materials. In the communications space, the company reveals on its website that it has addressed such applications as 160-Gbit/sec transmitters using monolithically integrated 16-channel DWDM laser arrays, DWDM tunable receivers supporting 8 to 16 channels of 10-Gbit/sec digital or 20-GHz analog signals, and "high-performance" photonic subcomponents.
Finally, the former iTerra Communications exhibited for the first time under its new name, GigOptix (search for GigOptix). As described in the September 2007 edition of Lightwave and the Q3 2007 edition of Lightwave Europe, the company is leveraging new funding and a new management team, headed by CEO Dr. Avi Katz, to apply iTerra's existing expertise in 10-Gbit/sec ultra long-haul technology to shorter reaches -- including regional, metro, and applications of less than 2 km -- as well as 40- and 100-Gbit/sec transmission rates. The company plans to leverage both III-V and silicon germanium materials and processes.
At the show, GigOptix announced that its iT6155 has recently garnered several transponder design wins, including one at a company described as "a leading 10G/40G subsystem company with a unique MLSE EDC solution." It also unveiled the GX6120 EA modulator driver amplifier, which will come in two versions. The 3x3-mm QFN-packaged M device will drive electro-absorption modulators, while the D version will come as a die for use with highly integrated EML TOSAs. Targeted at XFP, XENPAK, XPAK, and X2 transceivers, the RoHS-compliant three-stage modulator driver chip operates on 0.5 W of power and offers a dynamic range of 1-3 Vpp. The device is sampling now, along with an evaluation board. The company expects to begin production of the device during the first quarter of next year.
These companies and their fellow exhibitors were fortunate that this year's ECOC featured a noticeable bump in attendees. While final figures have not yet been released, a representative of the show's PR firm said on the final day of the exhibition that organizers expected attendance would approximate the level reached in 2000. While this year's event didn't match the hyper-drive of that bygone bubble era, the overall optimism evident among the participants bodes well for the European market's future.
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