DigiLens Claims Integration Record

DALLAS -- NFOEC -- DigiLens today announced a record for Photonic Integrated Circuit complexity with 60 independently controllable electro-optic filters in a silicon chip measuring just 27 mm x 7.5 mm. The microscopic filters at the heart of the Wavechip™ are created with electrically switchable Bragg gratings, which are used to route, condition and monitor DWDM wavelengths all within the same integrated circuit (IC).“Our new Silicon Oxynitride (SiON) wafer scale manufacturing process has resulted in a significant increase in precision, which has led to this integration density breakthrough,” said Dr. Jonathan Waldern, CEO of DigiLens. “This is a major step toward realizing the optical ‘system on a chip’ dream and we now have strong customer interest for integrating multiple functions such as monitoring and equalization or low-cost reconfigurable add/drops with attenuation and monitoring on the same chip for example.”Lawrence Gasman, president of Communications Industry Researchers, Inc. (CIR), a leading industry analyst firm specializing in the fields of optical networking systems, components, bandwidth services and software, commented, “The implication of this level of feature integration and the cost/performance benefits that accrue as a result is that complex optical subsystems such as reconfigurable OADMs and cross connects will be available in the not too distant future with prices in the $100’s of dollars per port -- in sharp contrast to the thousands of dollars per port we’re seeing today. This changes the dynamic for carriers and will undoubtedly influence their network expansion plans moving forward.”The DigiLens Wavechip is entering service initially as the core optical processor in DigiLens’ DGE130 Dynamic Gain Equalizer module. Dynamic gain equalizers have been identified as vital components to maintain critical signal-to-noise ratios as metro links steadily grow in reach, yet have to be able to respond to increasingly dynamic optical traffic patterns. DGE130 evaluation samples containing the breakthrough Wavechip will begin shipping over the next few weeks.Dr. Waldern will be speaking on the subject of photonic integration in NFOEC Session B3 entitled “What Are the Issues and Challenges Facing Metro Optical Networking?”DigiLens Inc.