Bookham submarine pump laser completes full qualification and commences volume shipments

Submarine pump to make European debut at ECOC 2007

San Jose, CA - September 6, 2007 - Bookham, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKHM), a leading provider of optical components, modules and subsystems, today announced that its OceanBrightTM submarine pump module has achieved full qualification. The product, which is used in erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs), has commenced volume shipments and is actively deployed in undersea cable systems around the world. It will be shown for the first time in Europe on the Bookham stand (number 17094) at ECOC 2007.

To achieve full qualification, the 980nm pump module has successfully demonstrated its ability to meet the extremely demanding submarine reliability requirements of less than 50 FITs. Bookham has performed extensive qualification testing, including module level lifetest at highly accelerated conditions, analysis of which shows negligible changes in device characteristics that equate to a predicted change in output power of less than 2% over a 27 year lifetime.

“The performance and reliability data for the 980nm pump module confirms its ability to perform to extremely high standards in very demanding conditions,” said Mark Ives, PLM Director, at Bookham. “Bookham has long been perceived as a leader in the terrestrial pump market; this product is expanding that expertise into the undersea cable market, as demonstrated by volume shipments of the pump module.

“The OceanBrightTM module is the latest in a line of products built on our proven laser chip technology, which has now been deployed in volume to the submarine market for ten years.”

The OceanBrightTM module incorporates the Bookham generation eight laser chip (G08). It is capable of exceeding 400mW at operating temperatures of 0°C to 45°C and complies with multi source agreement requirements for use in uncooled applications. It is one of a range of pump products from Bookham, which includes ultra high power cooled butterfly and uncooled high power singlemode and multimode pumps.

During ECOC, Bookham Chief Engineer Robert Keys will take part in the Market Focus Seminars, presenting on the emergence of electro-optic devices to drive network capacity growth. The presentation will take place on Tuesday 18th at 12:00 in the Market Focus arena on the exhibition floor.

Ends

Notes to editors
1. ECOC is taking place at the ICC Berlin, between 17th-19tth September, 2007. For more information, please visit www.ecocexhibition.com.
2. To arrange an interview with Bookham, please contact Helen Lyman Smith on +44 (0)115 948 6901 or email helen {at} bcspr.co(.)uk.
3. A high resolution image of the Bookham OceanBright(tm) submarine pump module is available on request from howard {at} bcspr.co(.)uk.