BeamBox 1X4 and 1X8 Solid State Optical Switches Ready for Employment in Telecommunications Networks.

EDINBURGH, Scotland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 22, 1997--Akzo Nobel Photonics announced that its 1x4 and 1x8 solid state optical switches are now ready for deployment in optical telecommunications networks.

"After two years of design optimization and testing, in close cooperation with leading telecommunication systems integrators, BeamBox(TM) solid state optical switches are available for commercial use. Optical switching is taking off rapidly and our BeamBox solid state optical switches provide the performance to construct high bandwidth and high reliability switching nodes," said Rien Flipse, Akzo Nobel Photonics' technical marketing manager.

BeamBox 1x4 and 1x8 switches are compact, single mode, fiber optic space switches. These optical switches facilitate the construction of switching nodes in highly reliable, high-bandwidth, all optical networks. The ever-increasing demand for bandwidth (e.g., the Internet) by telecommunication service providers is the driving force for this move to optical switching.

BeamBox solid state optical switches offer significant advantages in reliability and performance required for optical switching applications. The solid state BeamBox switch does not contain moving parts that can wear in time. Furthermore, the less than two millisecond switching time provides ample time to route high bandwidth optical traffic through the switching nodes. The robust digital switching characteristic and the compact size of the switch make incorporation into optical network systems straightforward. These properties make BeamBox switches the choice for optical switching applications.

After completion of a major part of the reliability qualification program, the design and the production process of the 1x4 and 1x8 switches have been fixed and volume production is running. The 1x4 and 1x8 switches were the first switches to make the step from prototypes to products. The 1x2, the 2x2, and the arrays of 1x2 and 2x2 switches (arrays of switches are multiple individually controllable switches in a single package) will go through the same process. Whereas the 1x4 and 1x8 switches are often used in optical cross-connects (4x4 or 8x8 switch matrix), the smaller switches (1x2, 2x2) are mainly used for protection switching and wavelength add/drop applications in dense WDM systems.

Akzo Nobel Photonics provides BeamBox switches for all these applications, making high bandwidth and high reliability switching possible.

Akzo Nobel Photonics is a business unit of the multinational Akzo Nobel. Currently 70 people are involved in designing, manufacturing and selling BeamBox optical switches. Our optochip fabrication facility (capacity 30,000 per year) is located in Arnhem, The Netherlands. Our component production center, where the optochip is pigtailed and packaged, is located in Sunnyvale, California, the heart of Silicon Valley. Sales and marketing centers are located in Arnhem, Sunnyvale, and Tokyo, Japan. -0-

Note to Editors: The following Akzo Nobel Photonics executives are available for interviews: Rien Flipse, General Manager Photonics, [phone]; George F. Lipscomb, General Manager Sunnyvale, 408/752-1800.

CONTACT: Akzo Nobel Phototonics

Rien Flipse, [phone]

[e-mail]