Kymata Arrayed Waveguide Gratings Set To Replace Thin Film Filters in DWDM Markets.

Business/Technology Editors

LIVINGSTON, Scotland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 26, 2001

Technology Breakthrough Leads to Mass-Producible Components to

Meet Demand for Ultra Long-Haul, Long-Haul and Metro Markets

Visit Kymata at Booth 5022, NFOEC, Baltimore from 8 - 12 July 2001

Kymata Ltd., a technology leader, providing next-generation integrated optical devices for fiberoptic communication systems has announced a new product family of Arrayed Waveguide Gratings (AWGs) that will challenge current Thin Film Filter (TFF) markets.

The low-cost, high-performance optical devices are the result of a process technology breakthrough bringing improved specifications and higher yields.

Kymata has made significant breakthroughs in the Flame Hydrolysis Deposition (FHD) process used to fabricate their planar waveguides that have resulted in a major increase in performance. The resulting mass-producible components not only provide superior performance to that of competing AWG suppliers, but also rival the performance of traditional TFFs. Historically, AWGs have had a cost advantage over TFFs, especially at high channel counts, while TFFs have had a crosstalk performance advantage. Consequently, dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) system manufacturers were forced to trade-off the low-cost of AWGs against the performance of TFFs. With Kymata's new industry-leading enhancement to parameters such as crosstalk, insertion loss and yields, AWGs have become the optimal filter technology for DWDM systems for ultra long-haul, long-haul and metro markets.

Furthermore, AWGs are manufactured on a silicon substrate similar to conventional electronic integrated circuits like computer memory chips. This means that AWGs are inherently more manufacturable and scalable as bandwidth requirements go up and pricing pressures push down.

Kymata takes an extremely rigorous approach when specifying the performance for their AWG's. Kymata has been at the forefront of establishing industry-standard definitions and has published a white paper setting forth its definitions for insertion loss, polarization dependent loss, passband uniformity, crosstalk, chromatic dispersion, differential group delay, return loss, and directivity. These definitions are furnished to customers to ensure that specification commitments are clearly understood and meticulously followed.

"By implementing uncompromising standards, Kymata has taken a leadership approach in providing high-performance AWGs," said David Plekenpol, the company's Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing. "Compared to alternative products, Kymata's new AWG delivers industry-leading specifications. AWGs already offer cost and scalability advantages over competing technologies such as eschelle gratings and thin film filters. With this latest breakthrough they now offer significant performance advantages as well. Combined with a compact footprint and low insertion loss over wide passband, Kymata's AWG provides customers with better utilization of precious space and increased flexibility in design."

About the Arrayed Waveguide Grating

An Arrayed Waveguide Grating performs critical functions within DWDM networking systems by combining multiple optical signals, each transmitted at a specific frequency, into a single multiplexed signal. It also precisely de-multiplexes these optical signals. AWGs are employed at the beginning and end of DWDM transmission systems and are now also being increasingly deployed at mid-span add/drop locations. AWGs were first used in long-haul networks, but now find increasing application in Metropolitan networks. Based on silicon IC manufacturing processing platforms, AWGs route light like a two dimensional planar prism via silica based waveguides. The fine feature widths and very tight processing tolerances achieved by Kymata provide extremely high-performance products in very small footprints. The new devices have repeatedly demonstrated less than 3.5 dB loss over the clear +/- 0.1 nm channel window (less than 2dB loss to peak of best channel), better than a 50dB noise floor from the peak, 39dB non-adjacent crosstalk rejection and 27dB cumulative crosstalk rejection. For detailed device specifications, contact Kymata directly.

About Kymata Limited

Kymata was founded in 1998. Its global headquarters is located in Livingston, Scotland, Europe's leading center for opto-electronic research and semiconductor manufacture. It has customer support and design centers in Ottawa (Canada); Enschede (The Netherlands) and Pleasanton (California), as well as sales offices in Boston and New Jersey. Kymata's core business is the design and manufacture of advanced, planar, integrated optical devices for the telecom and datacom markets. The company has raised $160 million in funding over the last two years. Its shareholders include 3i Group; ACT Venture Capital; Bowman Capital; BT; Comdisco Ventures; Com Ventures; FNI Venture Capital; Kleiner, Perkins Caufield & Byers; JP Morgan Chase & Co; RBS Mezzanine Limited; Telesoft Partner; the University of Glasgow; and the University of Southampton. For more information about Kymata visit http://www.kymata.com.