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Technology Stocks : JDS Uniphase (JDSU) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Trader Dave who wrote (714)	8/2/1999 10:28:00 PM
From: Exciton	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 24042

Another reason is their expertise and manufacturing capacity in a diverse mix of materials. GaAs and InP for sources, lithium niobate for electro-optic modulators and path switches, polymers for switches acquired from Akzo Nobel, glass on silicon for arrayed waveguide gratings used for WDM modulation/demodulation, erbium for optical fiber amplifiers, and the list goes on. This is completely unlike the communications IC business where there are lots of potential players with expertise and silicon manufacturing capacity. In addition, the company has expertise in technologies necessary for the currently emerging fixed wavelength routers and add/drop multiplexors. Namely, they can use either electro-optic switches or optomechanical micromirror arrays to accomplish these functions. They also have expertise in the next evolutionary step in WDM--wavelength flexible routing. Semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) are a good candidate for this capability and JDSU has this technology as well. My one concern is whether the industry continues to evolve toward the horizontal model that JDSU depends on or whether someone like Lucent decides to vertically integrate this capability into the company. Lucent has the development expertise, prototyping, and some manufacturing capability. My gut says the competitive pressures favor the horizontal model, but the other possibility is something to keep an eye on.

To: Trader Dave who wrote (714)	8/3/1999 12:24:00 AM
From: TigerPaw	Respond to of 24042

There are lots of reasons. .... get the picture? There is another factor which creates leadership in a business. Proprietary advantage. Now it may seem silly to think of a laser & detector as proprietary but the efficency of the system is dependant upon how well they work together. Once a company gets a matched pair, and if they maintain quality control, they can keep on producing components of just the right frequency and power. A competitor has to match the process as well as the intellecual property to make a laser that works well with the dominant player. The companies with the fiber will tend to gravitate toward the dominant player since they can better guarentee interoperability with the most systems. TP