Agere Systems announces distributed feedback Raman pump lasers for 10- and 40-Gbit/s optical networks

Agere Systems (NYSE: AGR.A), a provider of communications semiconductors, announced what the company claims to be the industry's most powerful 14xx nanometer (nm) distributed feedback (DFB) Raman pump lasers used to boost signal power in ultra-high capacity optical networking systems. These pump lasers support Raman amplification in both co-pumping (in which the pump's optical power is transmitted in the same direction as the communications signal) and counter-pumping (in which power is sent against the signal) configurations with excellent wavelength stability.

These new additions to Agere's 269-type family of 1480 and 14xx nm pump lasers offer an operating power of 280 milliwatts (mW) with drive currents comparable to high-power Fabry-Perot (FP) lasers. 14xx nm pump lasers are used for Raman amplification, which boosts a signal using the transmission fiber as the gain medium.

These new high-power DFB products integrate the characteristics of an external FBG laser design -- such as stimulated Brillouin scattering suppression -- with the relative-intensity noise (RIN) performance of a DFB laser. The combination of both characteristics is critical to enable co-propagating Raman pumping, which distributes gain over the first few kilometers of the transmission fiber. The typical RIN value of Agere's DFB lasers is -158 dB/Hz, a major improvement over comparable external FBG-stabilized lasers with a typical RIN of -125 dB/Hz. Integrating wavelength stabilization into the chip eliminates the external FBG and thus also improves the stabilization over operating temperature.

Agere is currently sampling 14xx nm high-power DFB lasers, with production quantities expected in the third calendar quarter of 2001.

About Agere Systems:

Agere Systems Inc., formerly the Microelectronics Group of Lucent Technologies, provides semiconductors for communications applications. For more information, visit www.agere.com.