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‘Breakthrough’ optical
chip
Mitel prototype could
boost fiber-optic networks
REUTERS
OTTAWA, —
Mitel Corp. said it has scored a key technical breakthrough
and produced working prototypes of a chip that could cut costs and
dramatically boost the performance of fiber-optic
networks.
MITEL SAID IT IS developing
a chip that will help create more lanes to carry the voice, data and video
traffic on fiber-optic networks. That would make it cheaper and more
efficient to transport information over the glass fibers used in those
networks.
Known as Dense Wave Division
Multiplexing, the chip technology boosts the number of wavelengths, or
channels, that are used to carry traffic from a single beam of
light.
Mitel said it is developing a device
that may cram as many as 80 channels, or wavelengths, onto a beam of light
using standard semiconductor materials.
Presently, most technology can handle 16 channels, with 40 channels
available in products that use a technique called Arrayed Waveguide
Grating, Mitel
said,
“We’re working on
something that has a lot more horsepower to it,” said Mitel vice-president
of communications Jacques
Guerette.
Mitel
said it is using a technique called Echelle Grating to boost the number of
channels rather than Arrayed Waveguide Grating, which it said has
capacity, precision and production constraints.
With Echelle Grating a laser is fired at a piece of reflective
glass, shaped like a stair, that is mounted on a chip. Multiple
reflections are then produced, with some wavelengths canceled and others
reinforced.
The technique results in a
greater number of reinforced wavelengths, and corresponding channels, than
are produced by other grating techniques, Mitel said.
Arrayed Waveguide Grating splits light by creating parallel
waveguides on glass substrate, with each waveguide longer than the last so
that light entering the device comes out as different wavelengths on the
other end.
“The existing fiber-optic
industry is a competitor —this is a technology that seemingly nobody else
has, at least nobody else is talking about it,” said Duncan Stewart, fund
manager and technology analyst at Tera Capital Corp. who holds Mitel
shares. “So if it works...that’s very, very positive for
Mitel.”
Companies developing fiber-optic equipment for
internal and external sales include JDS Uniphase Corp., Corning Inc.,
SDL Inc., Nortel Networks Corp. and Lucent Technologies Inc.
Mitel’s “research breakthrough” includes capabilities
in three key production techniques, Guerette said. The company said it has
several proprietary techniques that it can patent for the chip
fabrication.
Mitel said it is able to
accurately control the thick layers of glass that are deposited on a
silicon base for the device, making performance more predictable. It is
able to control etching on the glass, for more precise light reflection,
and packaging of the devices, the company said. “Given the success that Mitel has had with their semiconductor line,
I would hedge my bets and say what they’ve have here sounds good,” said
Brian Van Steen, analyst at optical market research group Ryan Hankin
Kent.
“I believe that they have something
and I believe that they’ll be able to capitalize on it.”
Mitel said its products, to be called
LightRider, will likely
be available to key customers for testing early in 2001.
The technology is aimed at the market for urban networks,
estimated presently at $375 million by market researchers Pioneer
Consulting LLC and forecast to reach $2.04 billion by 2004.
“It’s potentially interesting,” said Stewart. “They
claim that they can make gratings that are much, much better than the way
JDS and other people make them — that may or may not be true, but it
certainly would get people excited.”
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