Lightwave Logic Inc (LWLG)

[prototype_101]

EO Polymers & Micro-Ring Modulators

At the request of Proto, I am going to share a very significant piece of information on the topic of EO polymers and micro-ring modulators/resonators (MRM/MRR).

We’ve seen research in the past on EO polymer MRRs that demonstrated the “expected” performance enhancement that EO polymers bring modulators in general.

We know that the primary weakness to MRR’s is that they are highly sensitive to temperature fluctuations. A 2-3 degree change in temperature in Silicon MRR’s can effectively make them useless in a PIC because the desired wavelength changes with temperature. Temperature controllers are used for Silicon MRRs to resolve this issue, but that creates more complicated system designs and drastically increases the power consumption.

There is relatively new research from a Chinese research group that uses a Dalton polymer (with proven instability, so no commercial threat and is for research purposes only) inside the waveguide of a Si MRR.

Besides showcasing the “expected” performance enhancements, an unexpected result of the research was that by using the EO polymer inside, the temperature dependency was lowered by 20-30 times. This means that the performance of this MRR is no longer affected by temperature changes in the operating environment and that you can eliminate the power-hungry temperature controller.

Another benefit showcased by this research is from a manufacturing standpoint. By using EO polymer as the waveguide core, you eliminate etching and additional doping steps of the Silicon.

What’s the point of all this?

I had shoved a possible Ayar Labs/Ranovus/LWLG collaboration aside, but now I strongly believe that they are collaborating. Ayar Labs/Ranovus are the dominant players in MRRs. LWLG is of course the dominant player in EO polymers. 1+1=2.

-KCC

https://www.reddit.com/r/LWLG/comments/1130r63/eo_polymers_microring_modulators/