re: Fresh Money for New MaterialsWhy Mr Burke would have a hard time seeing 1dB, given that 7dB is about the best they're doing at OMM. There are a number of emerging technologies that will eventually supercede the current crop of MEMs devices, with dramatically improved price and performance points.
I also find it interesting the LR gives OMM a free chuck at the competition for an article like this- I seem to recall another article where LR was doing a piece on some 3D MEMs company, and somehow Conrad got a picture of *his* device in the article- not the device from the company the article was being written. I can only compliment Mr. Burke on his ability to steal the spotlight in such an instance.
Beyond Continuum and Optimer are even more advanced technologies in the works; that's when it will get really interesting, and we should start to see some "star trek" stuff. Infinera (nee Zepton) has the equivalent of an optical IC.
Once you start building integrated optical components on an IC wafer basis, it will create a whole new technology revolution, similar to the one created by the IC.
This won't happen overnight, but we'll see it in our lifetime (assuming you're not 90 right now...)
won't it be fun then to recall the good old days when WDM meant putting a 1310/1550nm splitter on your lines....
re: Fresh Money for New MaterialsOptimer has a very, very steep climb to get into the telecom market. Polymer materials are great for lab experiments, but have many issues to overcome before being field grade. Chief among these are
1) Manufacturability -- process control (=yields) has killed many others in the field, Optical CrossConnects (nee Polymer Optics) comes to mind.
2) Temperature Sensitivity -- breathe on a polymer material and it changes properties -- even if you have Class 100 breath.
3) Optical NonLinearities-- Organic materials exhibit optical nonlinearities under high optical intensity (which are often temperature dependent). These effects depend sensitively on the the actual temperature and optical intensity. Field grade devices need to be insentive to temperature and optical power.
4) Material Degredation -- Organic materials degrade over time.
5) Optical Degredation -- Organic materials degrade with exposure to high optical intensity. Two photon absorbtion, (and N>2 photon absorbtion) is significant at high intensities, promoting molecular bond dissociation.
Moral--Target polymers to applications besides telecom (e.g. consumer electronics, automotive). Polymers are very likely to be successful in those markets.
re: Fresh Money for New MaterialsThis kind of technology development should be undertaken by unversities rather than VCs whose investment cycle is very short. Moreover, the VC inspired companies do not have the desired personnel and knowledge base to delve into complexties of basic research.
re: Fresh Money for New MaterialsDr. QGÇÖs bad experience in the past with an inappropriate polymer should not cloud our judgement now of the capabilities of up to date polymers engineered for robustness. The thermal stability of modern polymers is excellent, no degradation is observed until 400 degrees C, well above the maximum post-processing temperatures required. The temperature sensitivity of polymer is one of its great strengths, a high CTE allows it to be used to make low power dynamic devices. The loss in state of the art polymers are now comparable to that in CVD and FHD glasses- measurements of degradation due to high powers show no adverse effects. Process control is trivial with liquids compared to CVD or FHD production- a single step spin and cure operation like photoresist, no etching, no mask removal or lift off. Any manufacturing problems Optical Crosslinks may be having is a specious example- they use laser direct write.
I also find it interesting the LR gives OMM a free chuck at the competition for an article like this- I seem to recall another article where LR was doing a piece on some 3D MEMs company, and somehow Conrad got a picture of *his* device in the article- not the device from the company the article was being written. I can only compliment Mr. Burke on his ability to steal the spotlight in such an instance.
Beyond Continuum and Optimer are even more advanced technologies in the works; that's when it will get really interesting, and we should start to see some "star trek" stuff. Infinera (nee Zepton) has the equivalent of an optical IC.
Once you start building integrated optical components on an IC wafer basis, it will create a whole new technology revolution, similar to the one created by the IC.
This won't happen overnight, but we'll see it in our lifetime (assuming you're not 90 right now...)
won't it be fun then to recall the good old days when WDM meant putting a 1310/1550nm splitter on your lines....
1) Manufacturability -- process control (=yields) has killed many others in the field, Optical CrossConnects (nee Polymer Optics) comes to mind.
2) Temperature Sensitivity -- breathe on a polymer material and it changes properties -- even if you have Class 100 breath.
3) Optical NonLinearities-- Organic materials exhibit optical nonlinearities under high optical intensity (which are often temperature dependent). These effects depend sensitively on the the actual temperature and optical intensity. Field grade devices need to be insentive to temperature and optical power.
4) Material Degredation -- Organic materials degrade over time.
5) Optical Degredation -- Organic materials degrade with exposure to high optical intensity. Two photon absorbtion, (and N>2 photon absorbtion) is significant at high intensities, promoting molecular bond dissociation.
Moral--Target polymers to applications besides telecom (e.g. consumer electronics, automotive). Polymers are very likely to be successful in those markets.
-Dr. Q