Semiconductor maker Genoa says it has raised US$75 million for customer tests and marketing of a chip-based device for making optical networks more efficient and less expensive to operate.
The device, about the size of a sugar cube, is the first semiconductor-based optical or "photonic" amplifier capable of processing dozens of light wavelengths without distortion, according to Genoa CEO Rick Gold.
Gold told Reuters his company's new miniature device is a breakthrough for making optical networks more powerful and more pervasive in hard-to-serve metropolitan areas.
"If the optical industry is going to get on the kind of cost trajectory the electronics industry has been on, it will need to integrate multiple functions onto single chips," Gold said, noting that miniature components will allow for faster and more flexible optical networks.
"It's like the effect of integrated circuits for electronics, which dramatically expanded the range of applications those systems could address," Gold said of what chip-based amplifiers can do for optical networks.
Genoa's new amplifier is expected to find uses in various kinds of optical networking equipment, including high-speed routers, particularly in metropolitan areas, Gold said.
"In metropolitan networks, people want to get entire systems in for costs radically lower than costs today. This allows them to really change the economics of how they put networks in," Gold said.
Genoa has raised US$95 million since its 1998 launch. Money from Monday's financing round will be used for customer tests of the company's new device, for bringing the device to market later this year and for expanding manufacturing facilities, Gold said.
Monday's financing round for Genoa included undisclosed investments from telecommunications provider Global Crossing Ltd . and WorldCom Ventures, the venture capital of network services provider WorldCom.
