Emcore Unveils 2.5 Gig VCSEL Optical Transceiver SubassembiesMarch 12, 2001...Emcore Corporation's (Nasdaq: EMKR) newly
named "Optical Device Division" in Albuquerque, New Mexico, today
announced the availability of its first 850 nm VCSEL-based
optical subassemblies which incorporate industry-setting speed and reliability
in a standard TOSA low cost package. Applications are targeted for Gigabit Ethernet,
Fibre Channel and OC-48 applications. "Small form factor modules are
emerging as the dominant solution for Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel datacom
markets,'' said Reuben F. Richards, Jr., President and CEO of Emcore, who
debuted the rollout of the new products on CNBC's popular PowerLunch television
show in New York City today. "Demand for bandwidth continues to increase
and scalability has become a major concern for the providers of high-speed datacom
networks. In response to the demand for these products, Emcore remains committed
to VCSEL technology and intends to offer a complete VCSEL product line to help
our customers remain competitive.'' SC transceivers have the largest installed
base in Gigabit Ethernet and 1.25 Gbps Fibre Channel applications, while LC
transceivers are the fastest growing transceivers in the datacom market. The
LC transceiver is already the most popular module for 2.125 Gbps Fibre Channel
and OC-48 short reach applications and are becoming the standard for Gigabit
Ethernet applications. Sample quantities from Emcore for both the SC and LC
TOSAs are available now, with production volumes to be available by the end
of the second fiscal quarter. "These new products expand Emcore's product
offering in the fastest growing segment of the data communications market. Our
customer base has been requesting a cost-effective, reliable, turnkey product
for easy integration into their transceiver modules,'' added Dr. Hong Hou,
the newly appointed Vice President of Emcore's Optical Device Division in Albuquerque.
"We believe that Emcore now offers the broadest product line in the
VCSEL industry. EMCORE can provide its customers with bare die, arrays, packaged
components, and optically aligned packages to meet their specific product needs.''
The new devices from Emcore will be highlighted by the company at the upcoming
Optical Fiber Conference (OFC) next week in Anaheim, California. Agere in the Public EyeMarch 12, 2001...Agere Systems in Breinigsville, Pennsylvania
isn't waiting to go public to remain in the public eye. The Lucent
Technologies (NYSE: LU) spinoff (formerly known as Lucent's Microelectronics
Group) today announced that it has established its new regional
headquarters in Hong Kong to support its Pacific Rim business operations.
In so doing, Agere also announced the appointment of Dr. Dennis Packard as vice
president of sales and marketing, Asia Pacific, replacing Glen A. Riley who
is returning to Agere's headquarters in Pennsylvania, USA. Agere's latest product
rollouts of CS-relevance include a new small form factor polarization controller
for use in 10- and 40-Gigabit optical networking systems. The new controller
is targeted for high speed long haul system applications as a means of helping
reduce distortion caused by polarization changes in high-speed optical networking
systems. Developed using lithium niobate technology, Agere's polarization controller
is intended for use in a polarization mode dispersion (PMD) compensator, which
maintains a specific polarization of light as a signal travels across single-mode
fiber in high-speed, 10- and 40-gigabit-per-second (Gbit/s) optical networks.
The controller is targeted for use in high-speed long-haul applications and
can change polarization modes in real time during optical transmission. Last
week... and even more relevant to the compound side of the street than the above,
Agere introduced a new integrated L-Band
Raman pump module, comprised of passive optical components and multiple
pump lasers. Raman's are of growing importance to the large systems integrators,
and Agere's new Raman modules are expected to be available in the second quarter
of 2001, while production quantities will be available in the third quarter.
Last, but not least, Agere and Agilent Technologies
(NYSE: A) today announced a multi-source
agreement for 10 Gigabit Ethernet fiberoptic transceivers. The agreement
is the first developed to support the proposed IEEE 10 Gigabit Ethernet interoperability
standard, and specifies a uniform form factor, size, connector type and electrical
pin-outs. Agere and Agilent will independently develop 10 Gigabit Ethernet transceivers
based on the proposed IEEE standard and this MSA. All this and more are to be
highlighted at next week's big Optical Fiber Conference (OFC) in Anaheim, California.
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Vitesse Introduces New Lowest Power Crosspoint SwitchesMarch 12, 2001...Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:VTSS)
today announced that it has expanded its crosspoint switch family with the introduction
of their new lowest power 36x36
and 68x68 crosspoint switches. Building on its expertise in the SONET/SDH
arena, Vitesse designed Integrated Signal Equalization (ISE) capability into
its crosspoint switches to eliminate the effects of Inter-Symbol Interference
(ISI) that can occur in applications that use long, narrow PCB traces to route
the incoming signal, such as Clos switch fabrics used in Digital Cross-connect
Systems (DCS). Designated the VSC837 and VSC838, the switches incorporate novel,
proprietary functionality called Integrated Signal Equalization (ISE) on every
input to the switching matrix. This ‘jitter eating’ capability results in less
output jitter when the incoming jitter is deterministic in nature. Both products
are available in a high performance 37.5mm, 480 TBGA package. In quantities
of 1,000 units, the VSC837 is priced at $769 each, while the VSC838 is priced
at $325; the lowest cost solution available on the market today. Both devices
are now available in production volumes. Chinese Grow Especially Pure GaAs In SpaceMarch 12, 2001...GaAsNET ran an eye-catching story today
as its headline news item about a Chinese
experiment growing GaAs in space. It is a recommended read in its entirety,
but what was especially interesting was the quote by David Matthiesen, a materials
engineer at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio who commented on the experiment.
The reason it caught our eye here at CS News, is because Case Western is highly
regarded for its compound semiconductor characterization capability, and David
has been Principal Investigator on four space flight experiments investigating
selenium doping of GaAs in space. The conclusion, according to research published
by the Chinese Academy of Science and the Hebei Semiconductor Research Institute,
was that GaAs crystals grown in space are purer than those grown on Earth .
According to CWRU's David Matthiesen, "What is exciting about the recent
publication is that they grew device-grade material with the specific intent
to make devices. This is the first time that I know of that this type of experiment
has been conducted for GaAs - or any semiconductor for that matter." Swiss InP HBT Developers Take the PrizeMarch 12, 2001...Three Swiss InP developers, Raimond Bauknecht, Martin Bitter and Dieter Huber,
have received Switzerland's "2001 ZKB Pioneer Prize Technopark"
award for their outstanding work in developing 40Gb/s InP HBT receivers. The
prize is given to the most innovative research idea that translates into a marketable
product. A monetary award, the prize monies totaled 10,000 Greek Pi (31,415.92
Swiss francs) and primarily underscores the growing worldwide acceptance of
and peer-group appreciation of advanced compound semiconductor devices... most
especially, InP based devices. The award ceremony was held March 8 at Technopark
in Zürich. Dr. Bauknecht is the HBT Product Manager at OptoSpeed
S.A. OptoSpeed was founded in 1995 as a spinout of the Institute of Quantum
Electronics, which in turn is part of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
(ETH) in Zurich and Dr. Bauknecht and his colleagues seems especially adept
at winning prizes for their leading-edge InP work. Just one year ago Roberto
Dall’Ara, Opto Speed founder and CEO, received the “Swiss Economic Forum
Award” for being the best young entrepreneur in Switzerland and this year
Opto Speed researcher Raimond Bauknecht is one of the three recipients honored
by the Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB) for the most innovative research project that
translates into a marketable product. The other winners of this year’s edition
are two of Dr. Bauknecht’s co-researchers from the Swiss Federal Istitute of
Technology Zürich (ETHZ); Martin Bitter from the Institute of Quantum Electronics
(IQE) and Dieter Huber from the Institute of Electronics (IFE). OptoSpeed's
Roberto Dall’Ara elaborates why InP is getting so much attention. “The entire
Opto Speed offering is based on InP compounds. Other than being the only choice
for active optical devices, InP also offers a number of advantages compared
to alternative technologies when used for high speed electronics: much better
voltage handling capability than Silicon Germanium (SiGe), much less power dissipation
than Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) and superior high speed performance compared with
both competing materials." Winner of the ZKB Pioneer Prize, OptoSpeed's
Dr. Bauknecht added his satisfaction regarding this most recent award: “I
am really pleased with the prize I received with my two co-researchers today,
a recognition for many years of hard work. At the same time I know that I have
only scratched the surface. Opto Speed has been shipping InP 40 Gb/s HBTs since
last year, with a great response from our customers. But I know that much more
needs to be done: the potential for integrating more electronic and optical
functions on a single chip using InP based technology is simply huge.” GCS Signs Celeritek to 3 Year Foundry ContractMarch 12, 2001...Global Communication Semiconductors Inc.
(GCS Inc.) chalked up another foundry
partnership today, this one is a 3-year contract with Celeritek
Inc. (Nasdaq: CLTK). The contract is billed as one that will allow Celeritek
greater flexibility accessing the wireless telecommunications market, especially
in CDMA and WCDMA cellular phone standards, by outsourcing a significant percentage
of wafer manufacture to GCS. "We are very pleased with the new commitment
that Celeritek has made in GCS and the level of confidence that this demonstrates
in our ability to deliver high-quality and cost-effective products,'' remarked
Owen K. Wu, president and chief executive officer of GCS. "GCS has great
respect for the Celeritek organization and its enviable position in the wireless
telecommunications industry. We are looking forward to a long and fruitful relationship
for the next three years and beyond." Under this contract, GCS will
provide 4-inch GaAs HBT and PHEMT wafers for various Celeritek products which
run concurrently in the Celeritek manufacturing line. "Our stated manufacturing
strategy is to outsource a portion of our fabrication work. We have been working
closely with GCS for over one year now and have been extremely pleased with
their quality of work, ability to match our internal process, cycle time and
service,"' said Perry A. Denning, vice president and general manager
of Celeritek's Semiconductor Division. "It, therefore, was a natural
progression to enter into a contractual relationship." Our news features are reported
by the CompoundSemi News staff writers.
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