OREANDA-NEWS. September 27, 2012. Furukawa Electric has developed a multi-core erbium-doped fiber amplifier (MC-EDFA)(Note 1) for use with multi-core optical fibers (MCF)(Note 2) that allow seven optical signals to be input simultaneously. We have also achieved substantial energy-savings for optical amplifiers by developing a collective excitation MC-EDFA using our amplifier technologies and connection mechanisms for optical fibers.

 Some of this research has been conducted as part of the Commissioned Research for Advanced Telecommunications and Broadcasting Research and Development sponsored by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, specifically the Research and Development of Innovative Optical Fiber Technologies (2010 to 2012) program and Research and the Development of Innovative Optical Telecommunications Infrastructure (2011 to 2015) program. Research and development relating to multi-core fibers has been conducted jointly with Tohoku University (Nakazawa Laboratory), while research and development relating to MC-EDFAs has been conducted jointly with Tohoku University (Nakazawa Laboratory) and Tohoku Gakuin University (Matsuura Laboratory), and research and development relating to the multi-core fiber connection technologies used within the MC-EDFA has been conducted jointly with the Chiba Institute of Technology (Nagase Laboratory).