Xerox Researchers Develop Breakthrough Technology To Bring Benefits Of Fiber Optics To Small Businesses, Homes

The technology breaks the bandwidth barrier that exists today by integrating an Optical MEMS (Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems) photonic switch with planar light circuits on a single silicon chip small enough to fit on a fingertip - a first ever achievement.

The new switch promises to provide rapid delivery of optical services by providing the functionality of a Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexer (R-OADM), a routing device that's commonly used today but is 10 to 100 times as large and costly.

"Global consumption of OADMs was $101 million in 2001 and will surge to $1.03 billion in 2006," according to Jeff D. Montgomery, chairman and founder of market research firm ElectroniCast Corp. "The most rapid growth is expected in fully reconfigurable devices."