CorActive CorActive High Precision Attenuating Optical Fiber Streamlines Fixed In-Line Attenuator Production

Press release :

Quebec City, Quebec - April 1, 2003 - CorActive, an independent manufacturer of advanced specialty optical fiber products, announces expanded availability of its family of high precision attenuating optical fibers. Immediate delivery of all CorActive attenuating optical fibers enables attenuator manufacturers to lower production costs by eliminating excessive inventory overhead. CorActive attenuating optical fiber products are based on standard telecom single mode optical fiber geometry but feature a core that is doped with metal ions to partially or completely absorb the incoming light.

CorActive's single mode attenuating optical fiber product line includes High Attenuation Fiber with an attenuation range of 0.4 to 15 dB/cm, Extreme Attenuation Fiber with attenuation greater than 15 dB/cm, as well as Low Attenuation Fiber for use in patch cords and backplane assemblies with an attenuation range of 0.5 to 40 dB/m. All CorActive attenuating optical fiber products feature virtually uniform attenuation over the 1250 to 1620 nm window ensuring compatibility with current and future DWDM, CATV and other telecom networks.

"Today's tight economy in telecommunications has enabled CorActive to excel by providing a superior attenuating optical fiber product with virtually immediate delivery. Reducing inventory costs and improving production yields has enabled our customers to better compete in an industry known for razor thin margins." explained Adrien Noël, CorActive's CEO.

CorActive's industry leading attenuation tolerances coupled with minimal batch-to-batch variance and immediate availability from our comprehensive inventory enables our customers to minimize production and inventory carrying costs. CorActive customers order the exact attenuation per unit length that is required for their current production requirements - a matching fiber will be shipped immediately from CorActive's inventory in North America, Europe or Asia. CorActive supplies attenuating optical fiber to many of the world's leading manufacturers of attenuator products.

Further assisting production of superior fixed in-line attenuators is CorActive's tight control over the core/cladding concentricity and the circularity of the fiber core. Fixed in-line optical attenuators are constructed by inserting a 2 centimeter piece of attenuating optical fiber into a tube or ferrule with precise inside diameter tolerances. With a core size of 9 microns for standard single mode telecom fiber, there is very little room for error. CorActive's industry leading cladding diameter tolerance of +/-0.5 micrometers ensures that attenuator assembly is fast and precise. The resulting attenuator product features a core that is very precisely aligned enabling very low core misalignment when coupled to single mode telecom fiber.

CorActive's Attenuating optical fiber has been in full-scale production for over 4 years and are available immediately for sampling. Complete fiber characterization data is provided with all CorActive optical fiber products and our optical design engineers are available to assist in obtaining optimal simulation results.

About CorActive :

CorActive is a well financed independent developer and manufacturer of advanced Specialty Optical Fiber (SOF) products for OEM customers serving the telecommunications, sensor, defense, security, industrial, medical and aerospace industries. CorActive uniquely offers a full line of standard SOF products, including erbium doped, ultra violet sensitive and attenuating optical fiber, plus custom fiber development services for specific applications. At CorActive we pride ourselves in providing technologically advanced specialty optical fiber products that uniquely enable our customers to offer superior products and services. With research & development and production facilities located in Quebec City, CorActive serves a worldwide customer base for standard and custom SOF products. For more information, call toll free (866) 845-2466 in North America or (418) 845-2466 or visit www.coractive.com.