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FibreSystems Europe, November 2001

Eblana gets into metro devices ...

by Tami Freeman

Irish start-up Eblana Photonics is ready to commercialize a family of source and pump lasers for high-bandwidth metro and access applications. The devices are specifically designed for high-volume manufacturing.

"We're bringing out two initial products - one is a laser transmitter with very high spectral purity, and the other is a pump laser with very high reliability," explained James O'Gorman, Eblana's chief executive officer and co-founder. "There is a large demand for devices that can be used for amplifiers with moderate levels of gain for specific applications, either in preamplification or to do distribution at points where there are high node counts."

Based in Dublin, Eblana was spun out of Trinity College Dublin earlier this year, in conjunction with the Irish National Microelectronic Research Centre. It takes its title from a first-century name for the Irish capital.

The company is currently sampling the lasers to selected customers and is developing the devices for use in these client's systems. "We will be supplying them with laser products that they will incorporate into their subsystems." O'Gorman continued. " We are not putting the communications infrastructure on the laser. That's somebody else's business."

Eblana is carrying out device design and testing, while using sub-contractors for fabrication and packaging. "It's a nice way of doing things because it gives us an opportunity to focus on the areas that are directly under our control and where we can add the most value, which in our case is laser development," said O'Gorman.

He is confident that Eblana will thrive, even in today's fragile market environment. "I think that the technology platform on which the company is basing its products positions it very competitively," he said. "We have a lot of products coming out further along the line that will be drawn from the same platform, and those will have the same high specifications and economy in applications.

last updated Friday, 21, April, 2006   |   copyright © 2005 Eblana Photonics Ltd.