ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Agere Systems (formerly known as the Microelectronics Group of Lucent Technologies), Alcatel Optronics, and Opnext (formerly Hitachi Fibre Optic Devices Operations) today announced an expanded multi-source agreement for 10 gigabit-per-second (Gbit/s) transponder modules used in optical networking systems. It adds Agilent, Ericsson Components AB, Mitsubishi Electric, JDS Uniphase, NEC and ExceLight (a subsidiary of Sumitomo Electric Industries) to an agreement signed last March by Alcatel Optronics, Opnext and Agere Systems. The expanded agreement allows all of these optoelectronic manufacturers to supply communications system providers with internationally compatible sources of 10 Gbit/s transponders to meet industry demand for high-speed fiber-optic communications components.

Under terms of the agreement, transponders from all of the companies must conform to specified packaging dimensions and pin functionality, and they must meet or exceed specified optical and electrical characteristics. The agreement allows for all types of devices (VSR, IR, LR, & WDM) to be available using the same design platform. The companies involved in the agreement all have an optics manufacturing capability in-house.

The companies involved in this multi-source agreement are exhibiting their optoelectronic components at the Optical Fiber Communications (OFC) conference, being held in Anaheim, California March 19-21. For further information, customers may contact the following company representatives by e-mail:

Agere Systems: John Bell, [email protected]
Alcatel Optronics: Arnaud Fardoit, [email protected]
Opnext: Atsushi Takai, [email protected]
Agilent: Dan Rausch, [email protected]
Ericsson: Torbjorn Palm, [email protected]
Mitsubishi: Shinji Shibao, [email protected]
JDS Uniphase: Tony Musto, [email protected]
Sumitomo: Gregg Cockroft, [email protected]
NEC: Tetsuyuki Suzaki, [email protected]