LONGMONT, Co -- Lightwave Logic, Inc. has successfully completed the fabrication of organic polymer ridge waveguide structures with its core material and has now begun passive testing. Separately, the Company also announces that its organic multi-chromophore polymer material systems have surpassed 2,000 hours of photochemical stability testing.
A ridge waveguide modulator (RWM) is comprised of one or more ridge waveguides that are typically uniform and rectangular structures with either one or two etched ridges to carry a light source. They are primarily used in telecom networks to convert digital (electrical) information into pulses of light before loading onto transmission lines.
Photochemical stability refers to the ability of an optical material to withstand the constant excitement by a light source without degradation of the electro-optical characteristics (R33).
Tom Zelibor, Chairman and CEO of Lightwave Logic commented, "I am very proud of our entire development team. Our electro-optic materials are performing exceedingly well and the photochemical results confirm the overall stability of our material systems. Our newly formed device development team, comprised of a recently hired optical and process engineer, along with our optical test engineer has made very rapid progress and has exceeded our expectations. In addition, I am also very encouraged by the fact that a member of our device team developed a proprietary methodology to successfully segment individual chips from the silicon wafers that contain our ridge waveguide devices.
"The fabrication of these devices clears yet another important milestone and moves us one step closer to our goal of demonstrating that organic polymer photonics can offer the same consistency and reliability as inorganic-based photonic devices. Polymer photonic devices significantly improve data rates at a fraction of the cost of traditional infrastructure devices based upon indium phosphide, lithium niobate and gallium arsenide, which are widely used today.
"We have begun passive testing which demonstrates both the waveguide's ability to transmit light from one end of the device to the other and the integrity of our waveguide structures. Once complete, we will fabricate active devices for modulation testing.
"It is important to note that when these ridge waveguide modulators are completed, they will be commercially viable and used as alpha validation devices for potential customers and joint development partners. We estimate that the total available market for 100Gb/s ridge waveguide modulators is over $300MM per year."
For more information, visit http://www.lightwavelogic.com