April 12, 2006 Woburn, MA -- Aegis Semiconductor, a provider of optical channel monitors for fiber-optic communications networks, has been granted two patents by the U.S. Patent Office, entitled "Tunable Optical Instruments" (U.S. Patent No. 7,002,697) and "Package for Optical Components" (U.S. Patent No. 6,985,281). The patents cover the design of thermo-optically tunable thin-film interference filters and a fiber-optic enclosure for these filters based on a low-cost transistor outline (TO) assembly package.
Thermo-optically tunable thin-film filters form the basis of the company's Active Thin Films technology platform, designed to serve the market for low-cost DWDM channel monitoring. According to the company, optical monitoring is ubiquitous in optical communication networks; however, it's primarily limited to detecting the composite optical signal with a simple photodetector. By adding Active Thin Films technology within the photodetector enclosure, the company says its technology enables full spectrum analysis of DWDM signals within the same compact package.
"We are proud to receive these two patents, which reflect our core competency and reaffirm our mission to enable intelligence and flexibility in DWDM optical networks through the use of cost-effective tunable thin-film technology," comments Don Bossi, president and CEO of Aegis Semiconductor. "Since its inception five years ago, the Active Thin Films platform has evolved to reach maturity, as evidenced by ongoing large-scale deployments in communications service-provider networks."