Variable Optical Attenuators Claim 1,000x Speed Increase

These single- and 8-channel voltage-controlled variable optical attenuators (VOAs) are said to be 1,000x faster and 90% smaller than industry-standard devices. In the single-channel FVOA1001, each individual attenuator element is housed in a transistor-like, hermetically sealed package, while the FVOA2008 multi-channel array consists of eight MEMS-based FVOA1001 elements in a single package. The devices have a response time of under 60 µs (typ.), a polarization-dependent loss (PDL) of under 0.1 dB (typ.), an insertion loss of 0.8 dB (typ.), a wavelength-dependent loss (WDL) of less than 0.3 dB (max.) at 10 dB attenuation, a polarization mode dispersion (PMD) of less than 0.01 ps (typ.), a dynamic range of greater than 30 dB, and a power consumption of under 10 mW per channel. The devices come in a 9 x 16-mm package, with the FVOA1001 costing $1,000 each for engineering samples and the FVOA2008, $8,000.