MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 10 -- APA Optics Inc. has shipped the first of its new 56-channel dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) product units. The new DWDM has demonstrated the ability to multiplex and demultiplex 56 wavelengths with a single component without using interleavers or couplers, the company said. This component shows insertion loss of less than 5 dB and polarization dependent loss of less than 0.4 dB, said Anil K. Jain, president and CEO of the company. As far as we know, this is the only commercially available mux/demux component with the ability to combine or separate 56 wavelengths with such low insertion loss. This product is based on the same patented bulk diffraction grating technology used for producing lower channel count single-mode and multi-mode mux/demux components.