OFS Licenses NKT for Patents Related to Air-Clad Miscrostructured Fiber and Optical Fiber Grating Manufacturing Processes.

AVON, Conn. -- OFS, designer, manufacturer, and supplier of leading edge fiber optic products, announced today that it has licensed its air-clad microstructured fiber patents and its broad family of fundamental optical fiber grating manufacturing patents to NKT subsidiary Koheras A/S to use. Koheras A/S joins the growing family of OFS licensees for this basic technology.

Microstructured fibers are being used to develop high power cladding pumped optical fiber amplifiers and lasers for telecommunications, industrial and medical applications.

Optical fiber gratings are components used in high power optical fiber amplifiers and lasers for telecommunications, industrial and medical applications.

Both optical fiber gratings and microstructured fibers are also being used to develop a wide range of optical technology based sensor systems for industrial, civil engineering, biomedical and security applications.

Jakob D. Skov, CEO of Koheras A/S said, "Koheras A/S has been producing fiber lasers since 1997 and has successfully expanded into higher power levels during the last couple of years. Microstructured fibers are a strong candidate to be deployed in industrial laser systems. It is therefore natural for us to acquire a license from OFS. It will allow us to pursue the strategy of becoming a broad industrial laser supplier with unique value propositions for our customers."

"We have a long and productive relationship with NKT and its new businesses. The licensing of OFS technology is a way to broaden and more quickly develop potential markets which OFS can benefit from in the future," said Dr. Timothy F. Murray, President of OFS' Specialty Photonics Division. "We are happy to compete with companies that recognize the value of licensing our patents and are willing to play on a level field. We've invested a lot to develop and market these technologies and value the added market development effort that our licensees provide in these dynamic, incipient markets."

About OFS

OFS is a designer, manufacturer, and supplier of leading edge optical fiber, optical fiber cable, optical connectivity and specialty photonics products for a wide variety of applications and industries. OFS, formerly the Optical Fiber Solutions division of Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LU), has a proven track record of being first in the industry with application specific fibers, optical connectors, ribbon cables, erbium doped fibers, Raman fiber lasers and more. OFS is committed to providing customers increased value by offering products that deliver lowest cost per bit network solutions, protecting investments through future flexible solutions.

OFS distributes its optical fiber, optical fiber cable, optical connectivity and specialty photonics products directly to end users, as well as through valued distributors, external cable customers and equipment vendors.

OFS is owned by Furukawa Electric, Co., Ltd. a multi-billion dollar global leader in optical communications. Headquartered in Norcross, GA, OFS operates facilities in Avon, Connecticut; Carrollton, Georgia; Somerset, New Jersey; and Sturbridge, Massachusetts, as well as facilities in Denmark, Germany and Russia. For more information, please visit www.ofsoptics.com.

About Koheras A/S

Koheras A/S is a designer, manufacturer, and supplier of OEM lasers and laser systems to a broad range of markets. Koheras is the leading supplier of compact low phase noise DFB fiber lasers to the industry and has a deep knowledge of deploying fiber lasers in the industrial, scientific and defense related industries.

Koheras A/S has production facilities in Denmark and in Germany and sells directly to the end user as well as through distributors.

Koheras A/S is wholly owned by NKT Holding A/S, an industrial conglomerate listed on the Danish stock exchange (CSE: NKTH).