Communications

With the explosive growth of broadband services, global bandwidth demand grows in-step like clockwork. Data rich content like movies, video games, online backups, and streaming audio and video, and the versatile delivery of them all, to the home, the office, the cell phone, and the PDA, continues to propel the communications sector’s quest for new efficiencies.

At the macro level, this quest drives networks to find ways to mesh legacy systems with emerging innovations. At the micro level, it invites fiber optic components. How so?  Historically, at first take everyone understood optical fiber with its superior light guiding capacity to be the communications network backbone of the future.  Yet, it was only by engineers taking this transmissiveness and bundling it with functionality that the fiber optic network finally took off.  Thus, with the advent of erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs), fiber optic signal amplifiers, and fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs), fiber optic signal routers, modern optical communications took root and became reality.

Now, in this very tradition Helica devices take fiber functionality and its network pervasiveness to the whole next level.  With Helica devices mere fiber emits, filters, polarizes and interconnects.  Moreover, as network speeds increase to 40Gb/s, 100 Gb/s, and beyond, Helica components offer unique polarization and wavelength specificity.  Only Helica devices tap the all-optical strengths of fiber and help to integrate the complementary strengths of emerging photonic silicon devices and modules with legacy systems.

To discover how to make your communications module, component, or system simpler, smaller, lighter, less expensive, and higher performing, contact Chiral Photonics today.

Existing and Future Helica Communications Products

Helica™ In-Fiber Polarizer:  True in-fiber, flexible yet robust, broadband polarizer offers high power and peak pulse power tolerance at an unbeatable price. Standard wavelengths are readily available and the devices can be tailored to meet your needs for linearly or circularly polarized light.

Helica™ Tapered Coupler:  Simplifies device integration with the ability to deliver low-loss coupling between standard, low numerical aperture fiber and high numerical aperture waveguides and devices. Tapered couplers can be butt- or evanescent-coupled for more robust and exacting interconnects than can ever be achieved via lensed or tapered fiber.  Tapers are available in standard, polarization maintaining and polarizing (both circular and linear) versions and the core size can be tailored to minimize losses and deliver light in any format.

Helica™ Source Laser (Under Development):  Providing single frequency, single mode, single polarization output at a favorable price, the chiral fiber laser delivers a narrow linewidth (<1 kHz), naturally polarized, higher power (100s mW), highly efficient source.

Helica™ Chiral Fiber Bragg Grating (Under Development):  Mechanically induced grating features high stability for harsh environment operation as well as limitless polarization specificity.

Utilizing the above building-block passive and active products, the following Helica products are under development along with a number of custom products and modules: