Aegis Semiconductor Delivers Industry's First Tunable Thin Films.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

OFC 2003

Booth #2856

WOBURN, Mass. & ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 24, 2003

Aegis Semiconductor, an emerging leader in dynamic optical components and subsystems, today announced it will deliver a new class of tunable components based on its Active Thin Films(TM) technology platform, specifically designed for intelligent WDM transmission systems. The Active Thin Films platform - using a combination of thin film semiconductor materials with dielectric optical coatings - enables Aegis to deliver tunable components at the size, reliability, and price of passive components. Today Aegis also announced the mosquito(TM) optical channel monitor, the company's first product based on Active Thin Films.

Aegis is the first company to commercialize broadly tunable thin films, with more than 20 patents pending for the integration of semiconductor thin films into optical interference coatings. Some of the key advantages of the Active Thin Films technology platform include:

Volume Fabrication -- Aegis components are fabricated by the thousands per wafer, dramatically reducing the cost per device. Aegis' processes are fully CMOS-compatible, enabling integration of optical and control functions on a single chip.

Automated Test -- Aegis components are fully tested and characterized while in wafer form, dramatically reducing test cycles and handling costs.

Low-cost Packaging -- Aegis components are assembled using commodity Transistor Outline (TO) packaging, the highest volume and lowest-cost hermetic package in the optics industry. The wide availability of contract TO packaging services results in minimal overall costs.

Solid-state Reliability -- With no moving parts and a silicon-based design, Aegis's components are designed for long-term reliability, and can be cycled hundreds of millions of times without drift or degradation.

"Our Active Thin Films platform leverages proven semiconductor fabrication, test and packaging processes to deliver an order-of-magnitude reduction in cost for tunable optics," said Matthias Wagner, Founder and CEO, Aegis Semiconductor. "Equipment vendors can now deliver intelligent transmission systems to service providers without the additional costs traditionally associated with tunability."

"Tunable components, particularly those used for active monitoring of WDM transmission systems, will play an important role in improving the reliability and operations of optical networks," said Scott Clavenna, President of Point East Research, a leading optical industry research firm. "The ability to deliver tunable optics at the price of passive optics provides a compelling proposition that transmission vendors simply can't afford to ignore."

The mosquito optical channel monitor (OCM) announced today provides full C- or L-band monitoring and is designed to be embedded into WDM nodes and repeaters at very low cost. The mosquito OCM is designed to enable self-monitoring, self-management, automatic fault isolation and simplified network management - all critical requirements for intelligent transmission systems. Designed to comply with Telcordia GR-468 requirements, the mosquito OCM is manufactured using wafer-scale processing, wafer-scale testing, and low-cost TO packaging. The mosquito is currently in multiple trials with equipment vendors, and will be commercially available mid-2003.

About Aegis Semiconductor

Aegis Semiconductor is a privately held company that builds solutions for monitoring and managing intelligent optical networks. Aegis is the first company to deliver dynamic optical components based on low-cost packaging architectures that are reliable and easily manufactured using well-tested methods from the semiconductor industry. Aegis has secured more than $17 Million in funding from leading investors and venture capitalists including St. Paul Venture Capital, Alta Partners, YankeeTek Ventures, Technology Venture Partners, Stata Venture Partners, and Megunticook Management. The company is located in Woburn, MA, and more information can be viewed at www.aegis-semi.com.