Burlington, Massachusetts-based Lasertron Inc and IBM Corp have signed a licensing agreement that permits Lasertron to incorporate a laser chip developed at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory in the production of high power fibre-optic laser modules. The agreement provides access to patented designs and processes and specialised manufacturing equipment developed and produced by IBM. Prior to the agreement, IBM had been the sole producer of the laser chip that has been used by Lasertron to manufacture pump laser sources, a key component in the latest generation of optically amplified telecommunications and cable television transmissions systems. The pump laser chips developed by IBM, which will be produced under the agreement by Lasertron, emit the high optical power levels needed to pump erbium-doped fibre amplifiers. The latest generation of these chips, called the ‘E2’, emits over 150mW of power at the infra-red wavelength near 980 nanometres. Modules produced by Lasertron using the chips have been deployed in the long-distance fibre-optic telecommunications network over the past year for services such as live telephone traffic in US public networks, it claims.
