Furukawa Electric debuts semiconductor lasers
for information and industrial electronic apparatus

September 6, 2004

Furukawa Electric (Other OTC:FUWAF), leading provider of semiconductor lasers for long-distance telecommunication, today announced its plan to release 850nm Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) for information and industrial electronic apparatus.
Its lineup is composed of a bare chip, an arrayed chip, a Chip On Submount (COS) and a Transmitter Optical Sub Assembly (TOSA) and would satisfy a variety of customers' demands. The price points meet requirements to proliferate high speed optical components in a variety of applications such as data-communication, interconnections, encoders, automobile applications, and digital information apparatus.

· Background

Not only the Internet but also a communication between digital information apparatus in office and home has become to require higher speed optical components. And industrial electronic apparatus is using optical sensors in a variety of fields, especially in a factory. The 850nm VCSEL has become popular in the fields because of its high performance and low pricing.
Furukawa Electric is a market leader of 1480nm and 980nm semiconductor pumping laser diode and 1300nm, 1550nm, CWDM, DWDM signal laser diodes for the telecommunication. Those technologies and know-how are successfully deployed in this new product. Furukawa has already started sample shipments and will start its volume production this October.

· Features of this product

The newly released VCSEL, which is made from GaAs material and hires an oxide current confinement, would cover modulation speed up to 10Gbps. The VCSEL also features low power consumption, a wide temperature range from -40 to 125C, and a high reliability. The TOSA, which contains monitor PD and is capable of having either LC connector or SC connector, would also cover 4.25Gbps, the highest speed required for the Fiber Channel application. ( Product code for LC connector type; FOL85VMDTOI-0-Lx ) The TOSA for application ranging from 1.025Gbps to 4.25Gbps could be featured with a flat pricing for the volume customers.

· Specifications

Chip and COS : Threshold current; 1.5mA, Slope efficiency; 0.3mW / mA
TOSA: Fiber; 50 microns and 62.5 microns GI fiber, Typical operation current; 6mA @ 0.3mW

· About Furukawa Electric

Furukawa Electric is a designer, manufacturer, and supplier of leading edge optical fiber and cables, photonic products, power cables, nonferrous metals, electronics devices.
Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Furukawa operates facilities in United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, United Kingdom, Hungary, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, and Asian countries.