Santec Unveils LCOS ROADM Parts

KOMAKI, Japan -- SANTEC corporation has introduced its WPA (WaveProcessorTM Array) family of products based on LCOS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon) for NextG.-ROADMs (Next Generation Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop Multiplexers). The cost-effective WPA solutions enable system providers to efficiently manage bandwidth with the flexibility required by intelligent optical transport networks (OTN).The WPA family includes WPA-44 for4x4 WXC (wavelength-crossconnect switch), WPA-8 and WPA-12 (wavelength blocker arrays) with port counts of 8 and 12, respectively, and TFA-8 (tunable filter array) with a port count of 8 enabling colorless receivers.The WPA-44 is the first integrated commercial product of its kind, supporting colorless, directionless, and wavelength contentionless operation. The WPA major products, WPA-44, WPA-8, and TFA-8 will be showcased at SANTEC’s ECOC 2010 Booth #306

SANTEC says the WPA family is the new generation of intelligent products based on santec’s proprietary LCOS technology with proven long-term reliability. The WPA-8 has the function of channel selection mode, in which the user can select a single channel within the ITU-T 50GHz 96 channels. The WPA-8 and WPA-12 have an ITU-Grid mode, in which the user can control the channel bandwidth (BW) and the attenuation (ATTN) levels within the ITU-T 50GHz 96 channels. The WPA-44 has the ITU-Grid mode and full control mode (FC mode). FC mode enables a high resolution waveshape setting in either C-band or L-band by pixel-by-pixel setting in the LCOS.

“SANTEC’s WPA family has many advantages for next generation OTN ” said Dr. Noboru Uehara, department manager of R&D of SANTEC. “We are extremely pleased with the advantages of LCOS technology in our WPA platform which provides software-oriented flexible and intelligent solutions for our customers.”

Santec Corp.