EXFO Acquires PicoSolveEXFO Acquires PicoSolve

QUEBEC CITY -- EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ: EXFO; TSX: EXF) announced today the acquisition of PicoSolve, Inc., a private test and measurement company offering the industry’s fastest optical sampling oscilloscopes for 40G and 100G R&D, manufacturing and deployment applications.

PicoSolve, founded in 2004 by researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, provides ultra-high-speed optical sampling oscilloscopes to network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) involved in the design and production of next-generation optical networks. Network service providers (NSPs) will also require such high-end test equipment for their deployment initiatives.

With bandwidth demand growing exponentially worldwide, NEMs are increasing the transmission rates of their optical networks to 40 Gbit/s and, in the near future, to 100 Gbit/s. Advanced modulation schemes, in which data is encoded in both phase and amplitude of the optical carrier, allow NEMs to reach ultra-high network speeds using existing DWDM channel spacing, while maintaining resilience to chromatic and polarization dispersion phenomena. Full characterization of this ultra-high-speed encoding represents a significant test and measurement challenge for both NEMs and NSPs.

PicoSolve currently has the only bit rate-independent test solution that can measure such phase- and amplitude-modulated signals with a measurement bandwidth of more than 500 GHz, yielding a sub-picosecond temporal resolution. PicoSolve also brings to EXFO a rich intellectual property portfolio with patents that will be leveraged over time.

“PicoSolve represents a small but highly strategic acquisition because it significantly strengthens our leadership position for characterizing ultra-high-speed optical networks for the NEM and NSP markets,” said Germain Lamonde, EXFO’s Chairman, President and CEO. “PicoSolve’s optical sampling oscilloscopes and the deep knowledge base that its team brings to EXFO will prove to be invaluable assets as technologies migrate from R&D labs, onto manufacturing floors, and into the field in upcoming years. Once again, EXFO will be front and center to assist customers in their testing needs.”

EXFO (Nasdaq: EXFO; Toronto: EXF)