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Technology Stocks : SDL, Inc. [Nasdaq: SDLI] -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pat mudge who wrote (1333)	5/11/2000 3:15:00 PM
From: Wyätt Gwyön	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3951

Thanks for the great posts, Pat. Is there a lot involved in SDL adding a second shift at PIRI? Looks like DLJ initiated coverage today. Anybody seen the report? 10:09 ET SDL Inc (SDLI) 168 3/32 +10 17/32: -- Update -- Continues to run, boosted by acquisition of Photonic Integration and DLJ initiation at BUY.

To: pat mudge who wrote (1333)	5/22/2000 6:33:00 AM
From: DukeCrow	Respond to of 3951

I think the following Q&A with Lightwave Microsystems President and CEO John Midgley gives some good insight into some of the applications and benefits of AWGs. They same to take the same approach as PIRI -- silica on a silicon substrate. This sheds more light on how strategic the acquisition of PIRI is for SDLI. lightwavemicrosystems.com Here are some of the most relevant parts of the Q&A: WM: What are the advantages? JM: First of all, in fiber networks you're always connecting optical fiber with optical fiber. Matching glass to glass is the easiest and best transition for a variety of practical reasons, the most important reason being that glass is the lowest-loss material available. In optical circuits, you can't have too little loss. Zero loss is ideal. WM: Curving the glass - that's what Lightwave Microsystems' LightWeaver? technology platform is about, right? JM: The standard technical terminology is buried channel waveguides of silica, in silica. LightWeaver is our waveguide technology platform. It takes specific aspects of buried channel waveguides and fabricates them in products. For example, our AWG, or arrayed waveguide grating, is a passive device that uses multiple waveguides to form what's known as a grating. It takes many different wavelengths and physically separates them out into discrete waveguides - or alternatively, combines many different wavelengths into a single channel. WM: But as a platform technology, isn't LightWeaver also the basis for other types of products? JM: Yes. Take switches, for example. Based on what's called the thermo-optic effect, you can use various structures in waveguides with heaters on them to move light around from one waveguide to another - in effect, to switch the signal. On the same principle, you can use waveguides to build variable optical attenuators - using heat to separate out part of the light being transmitted in a controlled, reproducible manner. And looking ahead, all these functions - and more - will lend themselves to integration. You have to ask: Why not put an arrayed waveguide, an array of switches, an array of attenuators, and another arrayed waveguide, all on the same chip? WM: Glass to glass to glass ... JM: It's easy enough to envision putting multiple functions all on the same chip. WM: From components to integrated devices to subsystems... JM: At some stage, yes, I think it will be feasible to mount components on a waveguide. For example, say you have a waveguide and you want to know how much power is passing through it. For example, take a power tap, maybe one percent, and mount a diode to measure it. Now, nobody's really doing anything like that yet in production. But it's a level of integration that presents itself for the future. WM: Where does Lightwave Microsystems fit into the big picture - of growing bandwidth demand and the evolution of fiber optic networks? JM: We're right at the heart of the most advanced optical communications systems. Dense wave division multiplexing is the state of the art in optical communications. Instead of putting a single frequency down the fiber, it allows you to send 16, 40, 80, and even, in some recently announced systems, 160 frequencies of light on a single fiber. That multiplies the capacity of a single fiber by 160 times. Now, the predominant technology for handling those multiple signals is filters, and for a 40-channel system, you also need at least 39 filters. Our optical integrated circuits for multiplexing allow you to use one device. So in essence, our products replace something that's much more complicated and labor-intensive. And of course our products are smaller than filters. WM: And reliable? JM: Yes. Optical integrated circuits are reliable, and down the cost curve as well. The cost curve for filters is linear: four channels, three filters, 160 channels, 159 filters. Our waveguides, do not scale linearly with channels; for example there is only one AWG for 40 channels. So especially as you go to higher channel counts, integrated circuit technology becomes much more cost-effective. In terms of technical performance, optical integrated circuits are also more effective at higher channel counts, where again you have less loss than you do with filters. Ali