Single-chi¥integrated-circuit technology may lower DWDM cost
Lightwave Microsystems (Santa Clara, CA) is offering samples of a dense wavelength-division multiplexer (DWDM) that costs one-third the price of existing multiplexers. The LightWeaver MDM-16, a DWDM and demultiplexer for high-speed telecommunications fiberoptic networks, can handle as many as 16 high-speed channels over a single fiber. Lightwave Microsystems developed a HiBit technology platform that shrinks and integrates several optical transmission and processing functions into a single, mass- produced optoelectronic integrated circuit (IC). The HiBit platform duplicates the manufacturing process for microelectronic integrated circuits and combines active and passive optical functions on a single circuit bed. The optical analog to a microelectronic IC silicon switch is the company`s electro-optical switch, capable of operating in excess of 40 GHz. This may be the breakthrough in economics that is needed to propel fiberoptics deeper into the network, says George Ballog, vice president of marketing.