Reconfigurable polymer based substrate mode optical interconnects

"We propose a reconfigurable planar optical interconnect structure by using a reprogrammble polymer based hologram integrated with a substrate guided wave plate. The input signals are coupled into the substrate with a grating or micro mirror coupler,zigzagged within the substrate, and then coupled out of the substrate at the desired destination by the reconfigurable waveguide hologram. The reconfigurable waveguide hologram consists of multi layers of inter leaved electrodes sandwiched with EO polymermaterials, like PDLC. By controlling the electrodes and the applied voltages, the waveguide grating can tune the coupling wavelength with the needed coupling efficiency. Compact and cost effective 1-D and 2-D structures with features of reconfigurationwill be demonstrated. Communications Industry Researchers(CIR), a leading fiber optics survey company, predicted that the U.S. market for tunable (reconfigurable) optical technologies will surpass $1.3 billion by 2005, driven by the needs of serviceproviders and equipment manufacturers to reduce the costs associated with building, operating and maintaining networks. The technology we are developing is in this market and can be used in optical add/drop, gain equalization filters, wavelength switching,and tunable laser source. This huge market provides PolarOnyx a remarkable opportunity to fully develop its reconfigurable polymer based substrate mode optical interconnects and apply them into op