AWGs Get Athermal MSA

TOKYO and SAN JOSE, Calif. -- NEL, Hitachi Cable, Gemfire, Furukawa Electric, JDSU and NeoPhotonics, leading companies in the planar lightwave circuit (PLC) passive components industry, today announced an enhanced Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) that provides a standardized form factor for Arrayed Waveguide Grating (AWG) Modules with an athermal configuration.

Athermal AWGs provide multiplexing and demultiplexing for DWDM optical equipment through a common interface. The athermal design compensates for temperature passively and requires no electrical power, reducing overall system power requirements.

The MSA enables equipment manufacturers to choose from multiple suppliers for the standardized product, helping to reduce lead times and cost. Version 3.0 of the MSA has been published and contains descriptions of the standard, small form factor and athermal AWG packages. For more information, please see the AWG MSA website at http://www.awgmsa.com/.

“The athermal AWG MSA helps solutions providers like JDSU supply cost effective products to network equipment manufacturers,” said Ben Hua, Product Line Manager in the CCOP business segment at JDSU. “It will also help system designers save on electrical power and extend the athermal AWG application into new areas where there is no electrical power.”

Gemfire Corp.

Hitachi Cable Ltd.

Furukawa Electric Co. Ltd.

JDSU (Nasdaq: JDSU; Toronto: JDU)

NeoPhotonics Corp. (NYSE: NPTN)

NTT Electronics Corp. (NEL)