Oct 2 2008
Infinera representatives will speak at the OIDA Photonic Integration Forum next week on subjects including the next commercial photonic integrated circuits (PICs) to emerge from Infinera's labs and long-term future applications of photonic integration technology.
Next week's Forum is the world's first conference solely dedicated to exploring critical business issues and significant emerging commercial applications of photonic integration. It will focus on applications of the technology to optical networking, the computer industry, and future research directions in photonic integration. Reflecting the broad applications of the technology, the conference will be attended by representatives from a broad range of respected technology companies including IBM, Intel, and Sun Microsystems.
"Holy Grail"
As early as 1969, photonic integration was identified as a key technology for optics. It has often been called the "holy grail" of optical technology because integrating multiple optical devices onto a single chip holds out the promise of breakthroughs in the cost and performance of optical systems. The Photonic Integration Forum will explore telecom applications for PICs including active PICs to enable low-cost optical-electrical-optical conversion in WDM and FTTx networks; data center/computing applications including recent advances in device performance, application drivers for processor interconnection, photonic backplanes, and server/computer interconnection, and building blocks needed for "siliconizing" PICs; and future research directions for photonic integration technology including developing an industry roadmap for the technology and looking at the challenges to integrating all network functions onto a PIC.
Infinera's Dr. Dave Welch will deliver a keynote address at the OIDA conference. Other keynote addresses will be given by Professor John Bowers, Director of the Multidisciplinary Optical Switching Technology Center (MOST) at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and Clint Schow of IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center, who will speak on "Optical Interconnects in Next-Generation High-Performance Computers."
Other Infinera speakers at the conference will discuss Infinera's next-generation photonic integrated circuits, Infinera's progress in manufacturing photonic integrated circuits, and the future development path and applications for photonic integration. Future applications likely to be discussed at the conference include high-definition video, health care, and the use of PICs for data networks aboard satellites in outer space.
"We are very pleased to see a broad cross-section of the technology industry, the academic world, and government representatives gathering at the OIDA Photonic Integration Forum to discuss research, ideas, and visions for the future of photonic integration," said Dr. Welch. "Infinera has successfully implemented photonic integration to bring value to telecom operators worldwide, but we believe the benefits of this important technology will one day be even broader than that."
The OIDA Photonic Integration Forum will take place on October 7th-8th at the Monterey Plaza Hotel in Monterey, California. Further information is available at http://www.oida.org/events/integration08.