Design and Characterization of Organic Waveguides For Passive and Active Optical Devices

Society has been rapidly moving into what may truly be called “The Information Age”. Our ability to process, transmit, and store information has been growing at the rate of over an order of magnitude per decade. Most of this growth has been achieved through advances in electronic signal processing. However, we are rapidly reaching fundamental limits for conventional electronic signal processing and transmission. Some of these are illustrated in Figure 1 which shows theoretical frequency limits for information transmission over a given distance on a dual logarithmic scale. These limits are based on high density circuitry (8μ electrode dimension) and thus can be circumvented to some extent by increasing the device dimensions [ 1 ]. For higher frequencies than those indicated by the lines in Figure 1 optics will be required for information transfer. For distances exceeding 1 meter, this can be accomplished with optical fibers. However, for shorter dimensions optical fibers are unsuitable due to their large size, rigidity, and fragility. Thus by the year 2000 optics will be required for on-board communication for many applications. The issue is not whether or not this will happen, but what are the preferred technologies. On the one hand, electronic signal processing and transmission has been centered around semiconductor and inorganic materials. These materials do have optical transmission capability and may well play an important role. On the other hand, polymeric optical materials have been used for years to successfully fabricate optical components. Regardless of the materials actually employed, what is needed at this time is the development and evaluation of many optical technologies so that each can find its own particular place in the advancement of the technology.