July 11, 2002--Bookham Technology plc, provider of integrated optical components and subsystems for fiber-optic communication networks, has announced that its 4-channel Electronic Variable Optical Attenuator (EVOA) has completed and passed the Telcordia GR1221 qualification program and has been approved for use by a major network system manufacturer.
The EVOA is used in a leading Metro system to provide rapid, remote channel balancing, and is now being shipped in production volumes.
According to the company, its EVOA is the industry's first silicon-based optical attenuator, manufactured using the company's proprietary ASOC technology. This device offers megahertz speed response time. The ASOC EVOA uses silicon's semiconductor properties to attenuate light at speeds orders of magnitude faster than competitive approaches, by using free carrier absorption through a p-n junction, a mechanism similar to that used in semiconductor diodes, explain company representatives. This speed adds genuine functionality to the EVOA, which can be used to balance fast transient signals. The product also has a very high dynamic range, with attenuation up to 45 dB, without dynamic PDL.
The EVOA product family is also available integrated on a single chip with other optical components such as optical power monitors, Arrayed Waveguide Gratings (AWGs) and switches.
For more information about Bookham Technology (Oxfordshire, UK), visit the company's Web site at www.bookham.com.