Company Profile

OneChip Photonics is a privately held company, headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, that develops and manufactures low-cost, high-performance optical transceivers – based on monolithic Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) in Indium Phosphide (InP) – for access networks and other mass-market broadband applications. OneChip's breakthrough approach and technology will remove the cost and performance barriers that have been impeding the ubiquitous deployment of Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) and enable new business and consumer broadband applications.

Photonics technology has played a pivotal role in fostering and enabling the Broadband Revolution even before the term and the concept were articulated. The invention of semiconductor lasers and detectors, low-loss optical fiber and, later, optical amplifiers, made long-distance data transport feasible.

Now, as telecom operators look to meet consumer and business demand for high-bandwidth media-rich, "triple-play" services (voice, data and video) – and differentiate themselves from competitors – there is more of an imperative than ever before to extend photonics technology into access networks.

Because of the overwhelming imperative to extend the frontiers of optical system performance, integration of photonic devices into Photonic Integrated Circuits has long been foreseen, but only recently commercially realized in long-reach optical transport systems.

However, the application of photonics integration into cost-sensitive, high-volume applications such as Ethernet PON (EPON) and Gigabit PON (GPON) transceivers for FTTH systems has been impaired by the lack of a cost-effective photonic integration technology.

Most current FTTH transceiver providers base their transceivers on either Discrete Optics or Planar Lightwave Circuit (PLC) designs. These designs offer low levels of integration and require assembly from multiple parts. There is little technical differentiation among them. Rather, vendors must compete on the basis of who can assemble the parts in a slightly cheaper fashion. And there is little opportunity to further reduce such costs.

OneChip Photonics is taking a new approach with its breakthrough PIC technology. It is the only fully integrated FTTH transceiver technology on the market. OneChip is monolithically integrating all the photonic devices required for an optical transceiver onto a single, Indium Phosphide (InP)-based chip.

All active and passive components – including the Distributed-Feedback (DFB) laser, Optically Pre-Amplified Detector (OPAD), Wavelength Splitter (WS), Spot-Size Converter (SSC), and various elements of passive waveguide circuitry – are monolithically integrated into one part.

OneChip's PIC-based transceivers can be manufactured using industry-standard automated assembly processes and machines. This promises to propel the Broadband Revolution into the “integrated circuit era” even for very cost-sensitive applications such as FTTH.

Currently, the company is developing these low-cost, high-performance transceivers for Optical Network Units (ONUs) and Optical Line Terminals (OLTs) in EPON and GPON networks.

OneChip also recognizes that optical communications are becoming economically and technologically mandatory in areas outside of traditional telecommunications. OneChip is poised to introduce photonics integration into other high-volume business and consumer markets, where its breakthrough PIC technology can reduce costs and improve performance.

OneChip has attracted top talent – from industry leading companies such as MetroPhotonics, Bookham, Catena Networks, Fiberxon, Nortel and Teknovus – who have successful track records of designing, manufacturing, marketing and selling transceivers, PICs and mass-market broadband access solutions.

OneChip is backed by world-class Canadian and U.S. investors such as BDC Venture Capital, DCM, GrowthWorks Canadian Fund and Morgenthaler Ventures.

For more information, please contact OneChip at +1 (613) 226-6117, +1 (866) 652-4627 (toll-free), info@onechipphotonics.com or sales@onechipphotonics.com, or visit our Web site at www.onechipphotonics.com.

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