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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY / JUNE 16, 2003: VOL. 2 NO. 24
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Breaking News -
Networking:
Patent Discloses New Passive
Optical Filter Technology
Essex Corporation, a technology and product innovator, skilled in optical
engineering, signal processing and communications, has received a Notice of
Allowance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for their first hyperfine
WDM patent application. This patent discloses a new passive optical filter
technology that can combine or separate very closely-spaced wavelengths in the
range of 50 GHz to 50 MHz with excellent optical performance
characteristics.
Dr. Paul Green, noted researcher and progenitor of the all optical network,
stated, "The Essex hyperfine WDM technology departs from the available
alternatives in its potential both for very large cost reductions and for
unprecedentedly tight channel spacings, both due to an ingenious and new, but
simple, design approach. An array of useful communication and instrumentation
products can be based on this idea."
Terry Turpin, Chief Scientist and hyperfine WDM inventor, stated, "We are
extremely excited that hyperfine WDM will be patented alongside such notable
optical filter technologies as array waveguides, fiber Bragg gratings and thin
film filters. We believe hyperfine WDM will become the standard for multi-
channel multiplexing of 25 GHz wavelengths and below. We also believe the 6.25
GHz units we have sold demonstrate the viability of this technology to achieve
a mass market in a family of optical networking applications that weren't
possible before this invention."
This patent, titled Optical Tapped Delay Line, originally filed in June of
2000, is the first of many potential domestic and international hyperfine WDM
patents. Subsequent applications include using hyperfine WDM as a: laser
locker, add/drop multiplexer, optical Code Division Multiple Access system,
privacy system, and optical signal processor. In the past year, Essex has
announced orders for ten hyperfine WDM devices. The Company has delivered five
units to three customers and has a contract for five units from Telecordia
Technologies, Inc., to build an Optical CDMA system for the U.S. Department of
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
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