News

18 September 2009

 

Infinera expands R&D with new Ottawa design center

Infinera Corp of Sunnyvale, CA, USA, a vertically integrated manufacturer of digital optical network systems incorporating its own indium phosphide-based photonic integrated circuits (PICs), has added to its optical networking R&D team by opening a new design center in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The firm says that its new center of excellence will tap into the pool of expertise available in Ottawa (a longtime hub of optical networking development).

Infinera’s 400Gb/s photonic integrated circuit (PIC) is in development at the firm’s development centers and fabrication plant in Sunnyvale. Future generations of its optical systems will be designed to take increasing advantage of signal processing technologies to process the large amounts of data transmitted and received by both these and higher-capacity PICs.

“The advantages of photonic integration are even more compelling at 400Gb/s than they have been at 100Gb/s,” comments CEO Jagdeep Singh. “Putting the best people together is key to finding the best solutions to the challenges facing the world's networks, and establishing ourselves in Ottawa increases our ability to recruit the best,” he adds.

Dr Kuang-Tsan Wu, who has been recruited to lead the Ottawa team, is an expert in designing optical systems using high-speed electronics and advanced modulation formats. Prior to joining Infinera, Wu led the team that designed Nortel’s 40Gb/s coherent receivers with advanced signal processing technologies. Infinera is currently recruiting a small number of additional engineers to join the Ottawa team.

“The combination of the PIC and advanced signal processing technologies provides an opportunity to create a significant disruption in future optical systems,” Wu says.

*Infinera is speaking at three events at the 35th European Conference and Exhibition on Optical Communication (ECOC 2009) in Vienna, Austria next week, highlighting advances in its photonic integration technology and the impact photonic integration is exerting on optical networks. Chief marketing & strategy officer Dr Dave Welch is participating in two workshops on 20 September: ‘Energy Efficiency in Next Generation Core Networks and Switches’ and ‘Monolithic and Hybrid Photonic Integrated Transceivers for Advanced Modulation Formats - PIC Technologies for Advanced Modulation Formats’. Also, in the ECOC conference, Infinera PIC team member Mehrdad Ziari will discuss ‘Large Scale Integration of Photonic Integrated Circuits on Indium Phosphide and High-Index-Contrast Si Platforms’.

Infinera says that the common theme running through the presentations will be the benefits that photonic integration brings in cost, space consumption, power consumption, scalability, and reliability of optical systems. With a fourfold increase in the capacity of PICs expected, the firm says that its next-generation systems will be designed to deliver further benefits in all these areas.

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