Teem Photonics releases an erbium-doped waveguide amplifier array
Teem Photonics, a provider of ultra-compact photonics solutions for high bandwidth optical networks, has begun shipping a new version of its EDWA Array. The EDWA Array features a newly optimized waveguide configuration and higher power conversion efficiency of four erbium-doped waveguide amplifiers integrated into one tiny package, just 135x22x17mm.
The announcement follows Teem Photonics' array waveguide based optical amplifier. Teem Photonics has the ability to move from one to four integrated amplifiers per substrate, offering scalability and volume production advantages.
The EDWA (erbium-doped waveguide amplifier) arrays address the problems faced by system manufacturers as they develop the next generation of optical transport systems. Increasing optical complexity leads to increased component losses, but erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) are too bulky to meet the equipment space constraints that carriers demand. Teem Photonics' EDWA arrays have an extremely small footprint and can address the loss issues in large photonic crossconnects and other optical switch fabrics.
Any application that requires boosting the power level on several channels on separate fibers or multiple wavelength channels on several fibers in a tight space will benefit from the EDWA array. Gains of 15 dB have already been achieved and Teem expects to improve this performance in the near future. Individual pump power control allows for channel balancing. In addition, Teem Photonics' EDWAs have the low polarization dependence and noise of conventional EDFAs, but in a fraction of the space.
Teem Photonics' manufacturing process integrates most of the amplifier functions onto a planar chip, vastly reducing the number of active alignments and splices to increase both the intrinsic reliability and reduce the production cost of these devices.
The company will be previewing an eight-channel version at ECOC 2001 in booth #2110, The Rai Centre, Amsterdam Oct 1-3, 2001.
About Teem Photonics:
Teem Photonics delivers ultra-compact photonics solutions for high bandwidth optical networks, which accelerate growth and convergence of telephone, data, video and Internet traffic. For more information, visit www.teemphotonics.com.