9/11/2010, at CIOE last year, OneChip first proposed and articulated photonic integration technology (PIC) based low-cost, high-performance passive optical network (PON) transceiver, which caused a great sensation in the industry.
About the photonic integration technology (PIC) there are three different views on market. Firstly, the urgency. The photonic integration technology (PIC) is a technical trend and revolutionary breakthrough in optical communication industry. With the fiber to the home (FTTH) development in high-speed broadband network, the demand from operators and equipment vendors on PIC technology products is increasingly urgent. Secondly, the suspicion. PIC technology has been proposed for years, but there is serious problem on yield though Infinera is using the similar technology. This causes market concern. Thirdly, the dread. Incumbent optical module manufacturers will be the impact of fear from the advantages of PIC technology on cost and performance.
This year, on the 12th CIOE, OneChip showcases a downstream broadcast video, upstream personal video with PON ONU and OLT equipment powered by OneChip’s low-cost, high-performance Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC)-based PON transceivers. This is an exciting experience watching the revolutionary technology, and also provides a chance for us to learn OneChip’s latest progress of its products.
Customer demand blooming
OneChip integrates all the active and passive optical functions required for an optical transceiver onto a single, InP-based chip. This enables significant improvements over current transceiver designs in cost, quality, reliability and performance. OneChip’s PIC-based transceivers can be assembled, tested and manufactured using industry-standard, automated processes, which enable the company to rapidly respond to customers’ needs.
Although OneChip product is coming late than expected, client craze on the PIC technology based product has not been diminished. Yit Lee, OneChip’s Asia Pacific general manager and vice president of business development, told us that customers are even more anxious than themselves to get its commercial products. Now it’s certain that the product performance can be obtained and is very stable. Through continue improvement, they are striving for better performance.
Andy Weirich, OneChip's vice president of product line management, said both cost and performance have been the bottleneck impeding spread of FTTH. During communication with our clients in last years, customers have been continually asking for cost down, and cost down! OneChip’s revolutionary technology is to remove these obstacles, and therefore dramatically reducing the cost of optical modules. At the same time, its large-scale automated production process will be becoming the best choice for FTTH deployment.
Currently, OneChip is fine tuning its PIC-based PON transceiver and will have samples available in the market soon. OneChip expects these transceivers to be commercially available early next year.
Shenzhen RO office to better serve customers in China
Announced in September 1, OneChip established a RO in Shenzhen to better serve customers in China. Shenzhen office is equipped with on-site laboratory, providing testing, debugging and demonstration to timely address the technology needs of customers in the region. This reflects the company’s commitment to provide customers with turnkey solutions and timely feedback.
Meanwhile, OneChip setup partnerships with Chengdu ACE Broadband Technology Co., Ltd. and Shenzhen Milli-Tech Electronics Co., Ltd. The two companies are OneChip’s distributor and manufacturer’s representatives, respectively.
About OneChip
OneChip Photonics is a privately held company, headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, that develops and manufactures low-cost, high-performance optical transceivers – based on monolithic Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) in Indium Phosphate (InP) – for access networks and other mass-market broadband applications. OneChip’s PIC-based Passive Optical Network (PON) transceivers will help system providers and carriers deploy Fiber-to-the-x (FTTx) more cost-effectively than ever before and meet consumer and business demand for high-bandwidth voice, data and video services.