Essex Sells Hyperfine for DOD Project

COLUMBIA, Md. -- Essex Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: ESEX), a developer of advanced signal processing and optical solutions for defense, intelligence, and commercial applications, today announced that a hyperfine WDM 16-channel, 6.25 GHz mux/demux prototype was sold to the University of Central Florida (UCF), School of Optics/CREOL (Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers). The UCF project will combine hyperfine WDM with CREOL's multi-line laser technology to build a proof-of-concept system that generates arbitrary optical waveforms for enhanced high bandwidth radio frequency communications. The project is funded by a grant to UCF/CREOL from the U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Microsystems Technology Office, Analog Optical Signal Processing (AOSP) program. The objective of the AOSP program is to create new and enhanced tactical and strategic radio frequency (RF) communication systems by expanding the system's bandwidth and time-bandwidth limits using analog optical signal processing components. Dr. Peter Delfyett, UCF/CREOL Project Manager, stated, "The Essex hyperfine WDM technology is the only commercially available multi-channel mux/demux that can separate and combine lines from our laser into discretely spaced 6.25 or 12.5 GHz channels." He continued, "Although this project is not a commercial project, our multi-line laser teamed with hyperfine WDM and a modulator array creates a potentially cost-effective fiber to the home/business/curb (FTTX) broadband telecommunications system." Essex Corp.