Organic Materials

Technology Work Group

Chair

Louay Eldada, DuPont Photonics Technologies

Participants: MIT and Industry Consortium Member Companies

Participants: Other Companies

Summary

A healthy photonics industry will be built on standardized component platforms that can be manufactured in high volume at low cost. These platforms will deliver performance: cost ratios that scale exponentially with each technology generation. Organic materials provide a versatile set of properties and processes that meet this need for both hybrid and monolithic photonic circuits. Organic devices have been fabricated and tested for both passive and active functions. Photonic circuits constructed of organic components have been demonstrated. During the next decade, organic materials will be a critical ingredient in commercial, hybrid photonic circuits.

The application of these materials to low cost, short reach data links is being considered for fiber circuits in 'Digital Home' entertainment and control systems. Known as Plastic Optical Fiber (POF), this multimode, graded index transmission medium exhibits ease of splicing and connecting, light weight, low bending loss, and resiliency to mechanical impact. With transparency windows at 850 nm, 670 nm, and 530 nm, POF is compatible with silicon or polymer photodetectors and with silica or polymer waveguide circuits.

Electronic-photonic integration is the major trend that is driven by complexity, performance, and cost. Passive organic photonic components with cutting edge performance and proven reliability are commercially available today, whereas active organic photonics and organic electronics are less mature and are not yet capable of high performance. The low thermal budget for device fabrication makes organic materials ideal components for advanced electronic-photonic partitioning.

Organic materials can accomplish the full array of optical functions and can be processed at temperatures that are compatible with CMOS integrated circuits. The main barrier to be overcome for active and electro-optic organics is reliability; high performance and reliable thermo-optic polymers, however, along with organic packaging and transmission media, are widely available commercially and are used extensively.