Testing to GR-468 standards proves reliability to network system manufacturers
FREMONT, CA – March 20, 2003 – Santur Corporation today announces the qualification of its key tunable laser component in accordance with Telcordia GR-468 requirements, expanded to encompass the greater functionality of widely tunable lasers. This milestone achievement is a prerequisite to widespread deployment by telecom equipment manufacturers, and represents a significant demonstration of the reliability of the Santur design. To alleviate concerns about a MEMS element in the product, Santur imposed even stricter test requirements on itself than does Telcordia by testing under shock and vibration conditions not included in GR-468 but that well exceed the GR-63 specifications that system vendors are required to pass.

The TL1010-C and TL1020-C as well as the new Series 2000 product use an integrated array of narrow-tunable DFB lasers with a MEMS switch to couple each element of the array to the output. By choosing a particular laser in the array and adjusting the temperature of the thermoelectric cooler in the butterfly package, high power and optical characteristics like that of a fixed wavelength DFB laser are obtained at any wavelength across the C-band. Santur offers customers a fully functional module that incorporates the now qualified butterfly along with a wavelength locker and drive electronics. All the optical elements of the Series 1000 module are fully Telcordia qualified.

To highlight the reliability of the individual elements, Santur separately qualified the DFB array, MEMS mirror, and the tunable laser butterfly package. Because of its design, the laser diode array chip reliability can be evaluated using a well-established accelerated multi-cell procedure like that imposed on standard DFBs, following conventional DFB reliability methodology. The resulting activation energy and statistical distributions predict an intrinsic failure below 10 FIT after 20 years under worst case operating conditions. Additionally, Santur imposed testing upon the MEMS mirror based upon the Telcordia standard, including temperature cycling, storage in high temperature and high humidity conditions, shock and vibration, and switching 109 times to seek out any wear out mechanisms. None of the tests indicate a significant change in operating characteristics, as measured by mirror flatness, resonance frequency, operating voltage, or other parameters. Finally, the packaged butterfly containing the laser element and the MEMS was passed through the full Telcordia GR-468 battery of tests with results that well exceed the pass conditions.

“Since the Santur tunable laser module uses established and field proven components, standard techniques can be used to gauge the reliability, resulting in a very high level of confidence,” remarked Richard Craig, CEO of Santur. “Based upon the detailed and intense level of testing, Santur is proud to be offering such a highly reliable tunable laser to our global customer base.”

About Santur Corporation
Headquartered in Fremont, California, Santur Corporation is a vertically integrated manufacturer of high-performance tunable lasers for metro and long-haul WDM systems. The company’s patented DFB-array technology enables the fabrication of broadly tunable sources at the same performance and costs as fixed wavelength sources. Santur’s products have set a new standard in the industry with their unique combination of high-power achieved without the use of a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA), wide tunability with no possibility of mode hops, stability in harsh environments, and low cost. For more information, visit www.santurcorp.com, call 1-(866)-TUNABLE, or e-mail marketing@santurcorp.com.


Contact:
Julian Osinski
Vice President, Product Marketing
Santur Corporation
P: (510) 933-4100, ext. 236
F: (510) 656-7563
E-mail: marketing@santurcorp.com