DuPont Sees Future in Telecom

Anne Fischer lent

Just at a time when many companies are getting out of the telecommunications sector, DuPont of Wilmington, Del., is entering it. The company has announced the formation of DuPont Photonics Technologies LLC as part of DuPont Ventures, which focuses on emerging technologies.

Although some would argue that telecom is anything but emerging, Drew Weber, general manager of Photonics Technologies, sees no decrease in the appetite for data and voice communications. And with DuPont's history as a materials supplier to the electronics industry, he sees photonics as a natural extension of the company's business.

The new venture will focus on developing integrated polymer devices for the industry, based on building blocks that work with DuPont's planar lightwave circuit integration technology, including taps, tunable couplers, splitters, combiners and integrated photodetectors. The result will be products such as DuPont's Road 821P, an eight-port reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer that The new company will be based in "Photon Valley" in Wilmington, Mass., to take advantage of the photonics activity in the area and of DuPont's connections with Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.