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CRL Opto and Optogone Sign Agreement to Jointly Develop Optical Communication Switching Modules
12 September 2002
CRL Opto Limited (UK), a leading displays company, is pleased
to announce its entry into an agreement with Optogone S.A. (France)
to bring to the market a new range of innovative products for the optical
telecommunications industry.
Under the agreement, CRL Opto plans to develop a programmable optical device capable of operating in the telecoms environment, using its world leading ferroelectric liquid crystal on silicon (FLCOS) technology.
Optogone expects to incorporate the new device in optical switching systems capable of quickly and efficiently routing data. Optogone believe the device will provide greater reliability, increased functionality and more compact systems when compared to devices currently available on the market. These attributes will provide a lower-cost system overall.
This agreement represents one of the first initiatives worldwide to develop and promote a family of FLCOS devices suited to the telecoms market. This technology is expected to play a major role, challenging micro electro mechanical (MEMS), in the next generation (2005 – 2010) of dynamic metro and long haul wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) networks.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
About the technology
The optical element used to perform the optical routing of the infra-red
light used in optical communication is based on a modified version of
CRL Opto’s FLCOS microdisplay with a resolution of 1280 x 1024 pixels,
i.e. SXGA format. The standard SXGA microdisplay is obviously tuned
to work in the visible wavelength range, whereas the new device is tuned
to operate at 1550 nm, i.e. the wavelength of infra-red light used in
optical
communication. In addition, rather than producing a readable image the new device provides a holographic element that will change the direction of the 1550 nm light. These modifications will require a change in the basic ferroelectric liquid crystal cell technology. For example, operation at 1550 nm rather than 500 nm will require the cell spacing to be increased by a factor of 3, which in turn will require improvements in the alignment of the ferroelectric liquid crystal in order to maintain the required alignment of the ferroelectric liquid crystal across the thicker cell. It is these aspects that will form the focus of this new project.
CRL Opto
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