MARCH 24, 2009 -- EMCORE Corp. (search Lightwave for EMCORE), a provider of compound semiconductor-based components and subsystems, has announced its plans to release a new full-band tunable XFP product line.
The company says the tunable XFP (TXFP) product line is capable of replacing fixed-wavelength DWDM XFPs as well as high-performance tunable 300-pin MSA transponders.
According to Ovum-RHK, the aggregate market for 10-Gbps DWDM modules is estimated to be near $500 million by 2012 with a significant portion of interfaces expected to convert to TXFP within the same time period.
Empowered by EMCORE's tunable external cavity laser (ECL) technology, the TXFP tunes across more than 90 channels on the 50-GHz ITU grid. The transceiver can be optimized for low power consumption to comply with existing XFP designs or for high optical performance to meet the requirements of existing 300-pin designs.
Stephen Krasulick, executive vice president and general manager of EMCORE's Fiber Optics Division, says, "This is a very exciting product line that adds significant value to two distinct market segments. Current fixed-wavelength XFP customers can drop in our TXFP and realize immediate cost savings due to the flexibility provided by tunable optics. Customers of tunable 300-pin MSA modules will benefit from the flexibility and higher density afforded to them by migrating to pluggable optics." Krasulick believes the TXFP will enable "a significant reduction" in capex and opex and an increase in line-card density.
EMCORE plans to begin early sampling to lead customers within the first half of 2009. The company is conducting private demonstrations of the new TXFP product line at OFC/NFOEC 2009 in San Diego, CA from March 24-26 (Booth #703).
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