FLCoS for Communications Systems to be Developed
Brian Dance, Contributing Editor -- Semiconductor International, 11/1/2002
Ferroelectric liquid crystal on silicon (FLCoS) devices will be developed by CRL Opto (Middlesex, UK) in collaboration with Optogone (Plouzane, France) for optical communications applications. These companies expect the FLCoS devices to play an important role in a range of switches and routers for the next generation of dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) optical networking systems, sometime between 2005 and 2010.
The partners initially plan to develop a programmable optical switch that should significantly improve the data routing performance of existing products. Other advantages including increased switching flexibility, reduced size and reduced cost.
CRL Opto is developing a modified version of its FLCoS micro display, which it has been marketing for some time for use in the visible wavelength range.
The basic ferroelectric liquid crystal cell format will be modified so that, instead of producing a readable image, it will provide a holographic element capable of routing the direction of radiation in the 1550 nm spectral region. The cell spacing of the display will be increased by a factor of three. This initial work is expected to take about 12-18 months.
Optogone will concentrate on techniques to incorporate the displays into the optical switching module. This company was formed in 2001 to utilize the display technology from the optical communications research group of France Telecom and the ENST Bretagne Optics Department (Lannion, France).
For additional information on materials science, go to www.semiconductor.net/materials.
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