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Atlanta, USA and Tokyo, Japan – August 24, 2009 – OFS (Head office: Atlanta, GA, USA, CEO and Chairman: Timothy Murray) and Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. (Head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan, President and CEO: Chihiro Kanagawa) announce that OFS has agreed to license OFS’ U.S. Patent No. 6,131,415 and its foreign counterparts to Shin- Etsu. This patent relates to the method of manufacture of preforms with a soot based core rod, such as Vapor Axial Deposition (VAD) and synthetic overclad cylinder glass to provide low water peak fiber performance.

This patented preform process is used to manufacture OFS’s AllWave ZWP fibers(*) which exceed the industry’s most stringent and comprehensive table of specifications for standard single-mode fiber, ITU-T G.652.D. The full-spectrum capability of low-water-peak fiber allows system designers using fiber made from the associated preform to support systems that leverage the E-band (1360-1460 nanometer) transmission window. Access to the E-band window increases usable capacity by 50% and allows for application of dense WDM (DWDM) or coarse WDM (CWDM) across the spectrum. Carriers today globally recognize the increased network capability and opportunity for return on investment that comes with specifying to this high standard. OFS, through its Lucent-AT&T-Bell Labs heritage, was the pioneer in this technology and was first to introduce this fiber and associated preform technology.

(*) ALLWAVE® is a US trademark right owned by OFS.
      ZWP® is a Japanese trademark right owned by Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd.

This agreement between leading fiber-optic companies demonstrates the critical importance of low-water-peak fibers. It further supports the performance and cost competitiveness of the pure synthetic hybrid VAD / Cylinder preform technology employed by OFS.

This licensed technology allows Shin-Etsu to quickly expand the existing capability of the preform production facilities at its Kashima Plant, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. By leveraging VAD core capacity from Kashima with existing synthetic overclad cylinder glass capability, Shin-Etsu will be positioned to cost effectively address continued strong demand for low water peak preforms in the Asia Pacific region.

• Brief Profile of Shin-Etsu Chemical
  Shin-Etsu is the top global manufacturer of silicon wafers. The company also supplies essential electronics materials needed in every phase of the semiconductor device manufacturing process from prefabrication to post-fabrication, such as photo-resists, synthetic quartz substrates for photomasks, and molding compounds for semiconductor devices. Besides electronics materials, Shin-Etsu has broadly-based product strengths in a wide range of sectors in the global chemicals business, holding leading market shares in optical component materials and a very wide variety of organic and inorganic chemical products. For further details, please visit Shin-Etsu Chemical’s web site at: shinetsu

• Brief Profile of OFS
  OFS is a world-leading designer, manufacturer and provider of optical fiber, optical fiber cable, FTTX, optical connectivity and specialty photonics products. The manufacturing and research divisions work together to provide innovative products and solutions that traverse many different applications as they link people and machines worldwide. Between continents, between cities, around neighborhoods, and into homes and businesses of digital consumers we provide the right optical fiber, optical cable and components for efficient, cost-effective transmission.
OFS’ corporate lineage dates back to 1876 and includes technology powerhouses such as AT&T (NYSE: T) and Lucent Technologies (now Alcatel-Lucent, NYSE: ALU). Today, OFS is owned by Furukawa Electric, a multi-billion dollar global leader in optical communications. For more information, please visit OFS’ web site at: http://www.ofsoptics.com/index.php