June 23, 2009
Haruki Ogoshi, Manager, FITEL Products Department, Telecommunications Company, The Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. received the Prime Minister Award with supreme distinction at the 7th Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration Honor Program. Ogoshi won the award for “Development of Erbium-Doped Optical Fiber Amplifier (EDFA) and Its Sophistication” jointly with Masataka Nakazawa, Professor, Research Institute for Electrical Communication, Tohoku University and Kazuo Hagimoto, Director, Network Innovation Laboratory of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation.
The award presentation ceremony was performed together with contents exhibition at the site of the 8th Conference for the Promotion of Collaboration Among Business, Academia, and Government held on June 20 and 21, 2009, at the Kyoto International Conference Center.
Title of the Award
Desktop-type erbium-doped optical fiber amplifier (EDFA)
Development of Erbium-Doped Optical Fiber Amplifier (EDFA) and Its Sophistication
Purpose of the Award
An erbium-doped optical fiber amplifier (EDFA) can directly amplify attenuated optical signals within an optical fiber, without the need to first convert it to an electrical signal as has been conventionally done. For this reason, the EDFA is a fundamental technology that is used to implement long-haul, high-capacity, high-speed optical communication systems easily and inexpensively.
As is known, the development and sophistication of EDFAs and the EDFA-based optical communication systems has created a new technology for optical communication networks, which has been broadly adopted worldwide to serve as the driving force for widespread use of the Internet, leading to the expansion of the optical industry. These achievements have been highly evaluated, resulting in the award at this time.
Furukawa Electric has long been involved in the practical use and productization of EDFAs, under the guidance of Professor Nakazawa and NTT Corporation. In particular, we succeeded in developing a high-power semiconductor pumping laser at 1.48 μm, thereby promoting practical application of high-power EDFAs that use the developed laser. The product has grown up to become a mainstay product in our optical components business, and a number of products are manufactured in the production bases in Thailand and China, to be delivered to markets in Japan and worldwide. Hereafter we intend to enrich our EDFA-related products to expand our business further.
Outline of Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration Honor Program
The program is implemented every year since 2003, with the objective of honoring best practices related with the promotion of industry-academia-government collaborative activities and thereby contributing to further advancement, such that the best practices have made a significant contribution to the promotion of collaborative activities by achieving a great success or by taking leadership in the collaborations between universities, public research institutions and enterprises. A selection committee set up in the Cabinet Office deliberates to decide the winners of the Minister's and President's awards.