Business

Oplink introduces innovative technologies to dramatically reduce equipment costs for access and enterprise markets

Dec. 9, 2002

December, 9, 2002--Oplink Communications Inc., a designer and manufacturer of optical components and integrated modules, announced that its newly developed GEM technology offers customers savings of up to 50% as compared to traditional metal-encapsulated packaging processes.

Oplink Communications Inc., a designer and manufacturer of optical components and integrated modules, announced that its newly developed GEM technology offers customers savings of up to 50% as compared to traditional metal-encapsulated packaging processes.

The first application for Oplink's GEM technology is CWDM. The new micro-optic package design and associated process technology is projected to cut CWDM costs in half. GEM improves the functionality of integrated CWDM and makes it more economically viable for access and enterprise markets to deploy.

Research and development for the GEM-based CWDM product began more than a year ago when equipment vendors approached Oplink to significantly reduce the cost of CWDM applications, yet maintain high levels of performance. Oplink successfully met those requirements by inventing the GEM packaging technology, and is ready for volume production today. The company plans to incorporate the GEM packaging process into other modules and devices.

"The traditional metal packaging method is high performance, but also expensive in material and manpower," said Joe Liu, president and chief executive officer at Oplink. "In an industry where reducing costs is now more critical than ever, Oplink's GEM process is not only a smart technology choice, but we think it is also one of the most economically responsible options available today. We have multiple patents pending with this new package design and associated manufacturing process technology."

The newly released GEM CWDM joins other Oplink research and development initiatives, including the company's 50-GHz thin film filter technology, broadband WDM solutions, and its 100-GHz wide pass band products.

CWDM is widely recognized as an emerging standard for fiber-optic transmission in the access and metro markets. CWDM uses lasers with wide channel wavelength spacing that is typically 20 nm, whereas DWDM uses a much narrower wavelength spacing that is typically 0.8 nm or 0.4 nm.

In addition, CWDM is more appropriately used for metro networks and DWDM is more commonly found in long-haul networks. Oplink's WDM solutions are based on its thin film filter technology, which prevents unwanted frequency interference between different wavelength channels.

For more information about Oplink (San Jose, CA), log on to the company website at www.oplink.com.