NEL, Kymata to Employ Polaroid Star Coupler Fiber Optic Technology

<%=company1%> (Cambridge, MA) licensed a key patent used for arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) multiplexer products to NEL (NTT Electronics Corp.) and Kymata Ltd. The products expand the speed and capacity of existing fiber optic networks

Polaroid's patented technology for an integrated planar optical star coupler is a critical element of the AWG multiplexer, a highly cost-effective component for enabling dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) in fiber optic networks. DWDM greatly expands the capacity of existing fiber optic networks by enabling the transmission of eight, 16, 32, or more channels of information on a single fiber, each channel at a different optical wavelength.

Polaroid has licensed its star coupler technology to a number of telecommunications companies in addition to NEL and Kymata, including AT&T Corp., Hitachi Cable, and Photonic Integration Research Inc. (PIRI). Polaroid is in licensing negotiations with several more telecommunications entities.

The star coupler patent is a product of Polaroid's core competency in the research and development of innovative optical and chemical technology. Dense wavelength division multiplexing, or DWDM, allows a single fiber to transmit many wavelengths simultaneously, thereby increasing the capacity of the existing telecommunications infrastructure without the cost and delay of installing additional fiber links. In essence, DWDM allows for more, faster, better, and less expensive connections for voice and data communications.