QPS teams with Canadian research council to develo¥telecommunication sol-gel devices

QPS teams with Canadian research council to develo¥telecommunication sol-gel devices

As part of a jointly funded $1.3 million program, the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSREC) of Canada is teaming with the National Research Council (NRC, Montreal, Quebec), QPS Technology (Montreal, Quebec), Ecole Polytechnique (Montreal, Quebec), and McGill University (Montreal, Quebec) to develo¥sol-gel devices for optical communications. During the three-year program, the team will develo¥telecommunications components such as planar-waveguide amplifiers, erbium-doped planar-waveguide lasers, and dense wavelength-division multiplexing devices. The McGill grou¥will perform sol-gel process development and materials science, researchers from Ecole Polytechnique will design and fabricate devices, the NRC team will test devices, and QPS will be responsible for packaging and reliability testing. Under its cooperative, collaborative, and industry partnershi¥programs, NSREC is providing $513,000 in funding, while QPS will supply $741,000 in materials and cash. The sol-gel process offers a potential method for high-volume manufacture of economical fiberoptic components.