Fiber Optics News

OmniGuide fiber aids surgery

Following the initial purchase of OmniGuide (Cambridge, MA) fibers by Brigham and Women’s Hospital, part of Partners Healthcare (Boston, MA), OmniGuide has become an official supplier to Partners Healthcare. OmniGuide Fiber, an optical fiber developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA) to flexibly guide CO2 laser light, was recently used for completing the first-ever bronchial surgery for treatment of malignant airway obstruction using a CO2 laser delivered through a flexible bronchoscope. The fiber is instrumental in the precise ablation and removal of central airway obstruction, a condition impacting more than 30% of lung cancer patients.

JDSU expands its test solutions portfolio

JDSU (Milpitas, CA) announced an agreement to acquire Test-Um (Camarillo,CA), a provider of home networking test instruments for the FTTx and digital cable markets.

“The deployment of broadband networks and the widespread availability of affordable broadband Internet access are driving adoption of new video and other advanced communications services for the home,” said John Peeler, executive vice president of JDSU’s Communications Test and Measurement (T&M) Group. “With our acquisition of Test-Um, JDSU will add an important set of test instruments to help our customers quickly, efficiently and reliably deliver the IP-based triple play services consumers are demanding.” Test-Um and its 30 employees will be integrated into JDSU’s Communications Test and Measurement Product Group.

Glimmerglass gets Japanese partner

Optical-switch provider Glimmerglass (Hayward, CA) has partnered with Terilogy, a provider of service-assurance software solutions in Japan, to market and distribute Glimmerglass intelligent optical switches to telecommunications and networking customers in Japan. Terilogy also invested $1 million in Glimmerglass to support the expansion of the company’s business worldwide.

“We are pleased to add Glimmerglass optical switches to the solutions we offer customers seeking to improve the flexibility and economics of their networks,” said Takao Tsubuki, president of Terilogy. “Glimmerglass has achieved an impressive reputation for quality and reliability-two factors we value highly in our commitment to customer satisfaction.”

Xponent outsources wafer production

Xponent Photonics (Monrovia, CA), provider of fiber-to-the-home/curb/node (FTTx) optical components, has begun producing production volumes of silicon planar lightwave circuits (PLCs) at Innovative Micro Technology (IMT; Santa Barbara, CA).

“This announcement is the culmination of nearly a year’s worth of effort to put Xponent’s Surface Mount Photonic platform into a merchant silicon foundry,” said Jeffrey S. Rittichier, Xponent president and CEO. “The move to 6-inch wafers will significantly increase our capacity, reduce our fixed costs and allow us to extend our leadership position in PLC-based optical components.”

Optical networking consolidation continues

Intersymbol Communications (Champaign, IL), a developer of advanced electronic dispersion compensation (EDC) solutions, was acquired by Kodeos Communications (Anaheim, CA), a provider of 10 Gbit/s next-generation optical transponders and subsystems.

Auxora (Baldwin Park, CA), optical solutions provider, completed its acquisition of Confluent Photonics (Salem, NY), provider of optical bandwidth expansion solutions for hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) networks. And Optium (Chalfont, PA), provider of optical transport solutions, including 10 Gbit/s transponders and CATV products, announced its acquisition of Engana (Sydney, Australia), developer of wavelength-selective switch (WSS) modules for reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) applications.

For more business news visit www.optoelectronicsreport.com.

Also in the news . . .

Alcatel (Paris, France) and Lucent (Murray Hill, NJ) entered into a definitive merger agreement to offer what they are calling the broadest wireless, wireline, and services portfolio in the communications industry. . . . IRphotonics (Montreal, QC, Canada), a developer and manufacturer of mid-infrared optical fibers and materials for the medical, telecom, aerospace, and other high-tech industries, successfully completed a $4.2 million financing round from both new and existing investors. . . . Seikoh Giken (Chiba, Japan) and NEC TOKIN (Tokyo, Japan) have signed a Letter of Intent regarding the transfer of the optical device business of NEC Tokin to Seikoh Giken. . . . Service provider XO Communications (Reston, VA) has selected the DTN optical system from Infinera (Sunnyvale, CA)-a communications network based on photonic integrated circuits (PICs) that combines dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) with digital switching-to significantly expand network capacity on their 18,000-mile national fiberoptic long-haul network.