Marconi launches components unit

Despite recent news of turmoil from Corning, Lucent and JDS Uniphase in the components market, Marconi unveiled the roadmap for its new unit, Marconi Optical Components, today at the Optical Fiber Conference in Anaheim, Calif.

A few months ago Marconi had revealed its intention to form its own components business unit; however, the company chose OFC as the launch pad for the unit.

In addition to producing a range of components including tunable lasers, modulators and erbium-doped fiber amplifiers, Marconi also unveiled its Terabit Engine strategy, a family of products that combines laser sources with modulation functions, waveguides and other passive elements.

While Marconi already had its hand in the component pie thanks to several decades of experience in photonic research, development and manufacturing for its own use, the company had no guiding focus for supplying those components to equipment manufacturers, according to Neil O’Brien, vice president of marketing for Marconi Optical Components. Now the company has a “strategic aim” to become a global supplier of components, he said.

Key to Marconi’s strategy will be its focus on developing gallium arsenide-based 10 Gb/s and 40 Gb/s modulators in anticipation of equipment providers developing 40 Gb/s systems, said O’Brien. “At the technology point where we are at, it’s the absolute right time for 40 Gb/s and beyond,” he said. “People are starting to develop 40 Gb/s systems regardless of the [downturn].”

The shakiness in the components business specifically, and the telecom sector in general, is cyclical, said O’Brien, referring to Marconi’s timing for launching the unit. “There’s never a good time for a launch from a purely strategic point of view,” he said.

Marconi will dedicate 300 engineers and scientists to the unit. As the unit grows and demand increases, the company has an addition 1000 personnel standing-by. In addition to existing facilities, the company will complete construction of a 200,000 square-foot manufacturing facility by the middle of next year.