JDSU Enters GPON Market With New Low-Cost Optical Detector Chip
Milpitas, CA — JDSU recently announced that it is now shipping an avalanche photo detector (APD) chip designed for gigabit passive optical networks (GPONs) that enable data transmissions for fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) offerings. The new APD chip provides high functionality at a low cost, making it ideal for FTTH deployments.
Network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) and their service provider customers are implementing GPON networks and offering FTTH solutions to consumers as a high performance option to hybrid fiber coax (HFC) and digital subscriber line (DSL) solutions for combined high speed voice, video and data transmissions. In order to maintain reasonable costs for these services, the optical components that make up the GPON infrastructure must also be low cost and perform at very high levels to ensure quality of service to consumers.
"The GPON market is starting to take off and is expected to grow at a CAGR of greater than 150 percent over the next several years, as service providers increase FTTH rollouts to consumers," said Lynn Hutcheson, vice president of Communication Components at Ovum RHK. "It makes sense that JDSU would offer an APD chip for GPON, leveraging its expertise at photonic integration and its strength at developing receiver products to deliver a low cost solution to the market."
In order to make APD chips affordable for the GPON market, JDSU leveraged its manufacturing expertise to create a new low-cost chip. Legacy designs have been updated to reduce manufacturing complexity, while retaining the same high reliability and performance of legacy APD chips. The chip is based on a planar platform, known for higher reliability and easier fabrication. JDSU has shipped tens of thousands of APD chips for telecom applications, with a reputation for field performance and reliability.
"With the new APD chip, JDSU has combined its telecom expertise and manufacturing savvy to enter the high growth GPON market," said Alex Schoenfelder, vice president and general manager of Integrated Photonics at JDSU. "The best part is that we are able to offer a solution to our customers that provides all of the performance and reliability they need at a reasonable cost."
JDSU is currently developing packaged versions of the APD chip for the GPON space and other telecommunications markets.
Additional JDSU Offerings for FTTH
JDSU also provides pump lasers to power optical amplifiers that enable HDTV, internet, phone, and video-on-demand FTTH services between a service provider's central office and consumers' homes. The pump increases an optical amplifier's signal power so that it can split a signal to travel over multiple fibers and reach the maximum number of homes.
In addition, JDSU is a leading provider of test and measurement products and solutions for FTTH networks. The JDSU FTTx test and measurement portfolio addresses the entire FTTx lifecycle, including lab testing, installation, service assurance and remote monitoring.
SOURCE: JDSU