San Jose, CA - February 27, 2006 - Bookham, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKHM), a leading provider of optical components, modules and subsystems, is highlighting its industry-leading line of 980nm pump laser modules at next month's OFC/NFOEC 2006 by releasing reliability figures that exceed all expectations for such devices in terrestrial applications.

Bookham has now shipped over 320,000 of the 980nm pump laser modules to customers, giving its devices an accumulated field operating experience of over 12 billion hours. Company analysis shows that the devices are achieving reliabilities of 30 FITs (Failure in Time) at 95% confidence level. FIT is the standard gauge of reliability for optical devices, measuring the number of device failures expected or occurring in a billion hours of accumulated operation. In terrestrial applications of high-power 980nm laser pumps in erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) - such as those used for telecom, cable TV and FTTx comworks - reliabilities in the range of 500 to 1000 FIT would be considered usual.

"With a FIT over an order of magnitude lower than what has traditionally been considered acceptable for pumps, the reliability of the module is unrivalled and surpasses all expectations for terrestrial applications," says John Barrington, Director PLM, Line Solutions, Bookham. "This level of reliability has even begun to attract attention for undersea applications, where, for the first time, cost-effective terrestrial products can be seriously considered and satisfy the most demanding performance and reliability requirements."

Demand for submarine systems is highly cyclical, resulting in high requalification and start-up costs. The potential to apply the Bookham 980nm pump technology to both terrestrial and submarine systems has implications for both cost savings and continuous production.

The Bookham method for packaging the 980nm pump laser also has significant implications for cost. Bookham uses an extremely stable common platform packaging technology for fiber alignment in all pump lasers to sustain an inherent and very competitive cost structure. This approach is further underpinned by low-cost manufacturing in Shenzhen.

Bookham has one of the broadest 980nm pump laser portfolios in the industry, covering 14-pin cooled, uncooled MiniDIL and Multimode products, including:
. The ultra-high-power LC96 series, which produces kink-free powers up to 580mW and uses a double Fiber Bragg Grating design for enhanced wavelength and power stability performance.
. The uncooled MiniDIL, which provides kink-free powers up to 240mW in a small form factor with very low power consumption. Qualification of the G07 ridge-waveguide laser-diode chip ensures high reliability even at 240mW, 70°C. The external Fiber Bragg Grating stabilization provides excellent wavelength and power stability over the entire temperature operating range.
. The Multimode pump, available in both 14-pin cooled and uncooled TO258 packages, provides powers up to 2.5W and 4W respectively. These highly reliable devices are designed for use in high power amplifiers employed in cable TV and FTTx applications.