Press Release

Leading AWG Companies Announce Enhancements to MSA Standard For Athermal Arrayed Waveguide Grating Modules

Tokyo, Japan; San Jose, CA: January 4, 2010 - NEL, Hitachi Cable, Gemfire, Furukawa Electric, JDSU and NeoPhotonics, leading companies in the planar lightwave circuit (PLC) passive components industry, today announced an enhanced Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) that provides a standardized form factor for Arrayed Waveguide Grating (AWG) Modules with an athermal configuration.

Athermal AWGs provide multiplexing and demultiplexing for DWDM optical equipment through a common interface. The athermal design compensates for temperature passively and requires no electrical power, reducing overall system power requirements.

The MSA enables equipment manufacturers to choose from multiple suppliers for the standardized product, helping to reduce lead times and cost. Version 3.0 of the MSA has been published and contains descriptions of the standard, small form factor and athermal AWG packages. For more information, please see the AWG MSA website at http://www.awgmsa.com/.

“The athermal AWG MSA helps solutions providers like JDSU supply cost effective products to network equipment manufacturers,” said Ben Hua, Product Line Manager in the CCOP business segment at JDSU. “It will also help system designers save on electrical power and extend the athermal AWG application into new areas where there is no electrical power.”

“With power consumption becoming an ever more critical parameter in advanced telecom systems, NEL expects that the new athermal AWG MSA will lead to more rapid adoption of this power saving green technology,” said Yoshio Itaya, Executive Managing Director of Photonics Business Group of NEL Corporation.

“Athermal AWGs are attractive and cost effective due to the elimination of the power supply control. Hitachi Cable expects the newly created MSA standard will accelerate the worldwide deployment of DWDM based optical network systems,” said Tomohisa Henmi, General Manager of Optical Transmission Components and Equipment Dept. of Hitachi Cable.

“Eliminating the requirement for electrical power is particularly important in access networks, where the AWG must be located outside plant Gemfire believes that applications such as WDM-PON will be accelerated through the availability of MSA standard parts,” said Nigel Cockroft, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Gemfire Corporation.

“Athermal AWGs are now commonly used in Reconfigurable Add Drop Multiplexer (ROADM) nodes to provide multiplexing and demultiplexing of local traffic. The availability of an MSA standard will make it simpler for equipment companies to accommodate multiple vendors,” said Toshihiko Ota, Manager of Telecommunications Company of Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd.

“The current MSA for thermally stabilized AWGs has been very successful in providing customers with certainty of footprint and supply and NeoPhotonics expects the new athermal AWG MSA to bring these benefits to the emerging market for athermal devices,” said Ferris Lipscomb, Vice President of Marketing of NeoPhotonics Corporation.

The AWG MSA group is an open forum, welcoming applications from AWG manufacturers that wish to join. For more information on detailed technical specifications or joining the MSA, please contact the following MSA representatives:

Gemfire Corp., Nigel Cockroft, n.cockroft@gemfire.com

Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd, Toshihiko Ota, toshi@ch.furukawa.co.jp

Hitachi Cable, Susumu Himi, himi.susumu@hitachi-cable.co.jp

NEL, Tommy Yamada, tommy-yamada@ntt-el.com

NeoPhotonics Corp., G. Ferris Lipscomb, flipscomb@neophotonics.com

JDSU, Ben Hua, ben.hua@jdsu.com

Press Release

Leading AWG Companies Announce A Small Form Factor MSA Reducing Package Footprint By One Third

Tokyo, Japan; San Jose, CA: July 23, 2007 - NEL, Hitachi Cable, Gemfire, Fitel, NEC and NeoPhotonics, leading companies in the planar lightwave circuit (PLC) passive components industry, today announced the addition of a new option within the Multi-Source Agreement For Thermally Stabilized Array Waveguide Grating (AWG) Modules (MSA) for a Small Form Factor package configuration. This small form factor module provides a footprint approximately one third smaller than the highly successful AWG MSA first published in December of 2002, depending on the configuration. These standardized AWGs provide multiplexing and demultiplexing for DWDM optical equipment through a common interface allowing equipment manufacturers a choice among several compatible suppliers, simultaneously reducing lead-times and cost. The new small form factor provides all of the benefits of standardization while saving precious board space. Version 2.0 of the MSA, containing descriptions of both the standard and small form factor AWG packages, has now been published. For more information please see the AWG MSA website at www.awgmsa.com.

"As one of the founding members we at NEL have been very pleased with the broad industry acceptance of the initial MSA for thermally stabilized AWGs, and we expect this Small Form Factor MSA to be equally successful," said Haruki Kozawaguchi, Executive Director of NEL corporation. "These MSAs define common mechanical features and electrical interfaces for the AWG Module, including the package dimensions, bolt holes, electrical pin positions and assignments, fiber positions, heater resistance, and firmware. The optical performance parameters, such as insertion loss, crosstalk and passband, are not specified by MSA, but are determined individually by the member companies."

"AWG technology has advanced greatly since the original AWG MSA was defined in 2002," explained Seiich Okubo, Chief Technology Officer of Hitachi Cable. "An AWG with the same number of channels and channel spacing can now be put in a package that is only two thirds of the size of the original. This new Small Form Factor MSA package will allow equipment manufacturers to utilize this small size while retaining the benefits of a standard mechanical and electrical interface."

"This new Small Form Factor AWG Agreement is a great simplification over the original MSA by providing a single slim, compact form factor for two choices of input/ output fiber locations while allowing for either internal or external electronic control," stated Nigel Cockroft, VP of Telecom Products at Gemfire Corporation. "Given the rapidly increasing deployment of AWGs and pressures to minimize system space we expect this new design will be very popular and will allow system integrators to move forward with confidence."

"It is important that MSA standards keep pace with technology developments," said G. Ferris Lipscomb, VP Marketing at NeoPhotonics. "This new Small Form Factor MSA allows the benefits of this technology development to be utilized by equipment manufacturers. However, we also expect the original MSA to be supported as well, since many systems world wide are based on that standard."

The thermally stabilized AWG MSA group is an open forum, welcoming applications from AWG manufactures that wish to join. For more information on detailed technical specifications or joining the MSA, please contact the following MSA representatives:

 

Fitel, Toshihiko Ota, toshi@ch.furukawa.co.jp

Gemfire Corp., Nigel Cockroft, n.cockroft@gemfire.com

Hitachi Cable, Susumu Himi, himi.susumu@hitachi-cable.co.jp

NEL, Takashi Saida, saida@photo.nel.co.jp

NeoPhotonics Corp., G. Ferris Lipscomb, flipscomb@neophotonics.com