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Optical Waveguides in Photonic Crystals
KeelSpawn sent in a short article talking about creating the equivalent of etched silicon for light, using a method intended to be cheap enough for commercial applications.
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The article does say that the current process is based on a laser etching in a polymer, but Paul Braun also suggests that the ultimate goal of usefulness will would probably be made of a material "such as silicon" that transmit light more reliably.
I fail to see a huge advantage in a photonics circuit based on this technology. Braun has perhaps developed a new method that could replace the complex multistep photochemical etching process of todays microprocessors. But it would appear to be harder to scale for production if the laser has to draw the circuit (or the inverse of the circuit) on the chip. Its like the difference between stamping a CD & burning a CDR. Stamping scales for production, and burning one at a time does not. Could be a real innovation for small-run custom circuits, but that does not seem to be where the money is.
HA! I remember an article in Byte magazine from ten or so years ago detailing a holographic terabyte storage medium on a piece of glass the size and shape of a microscope slide -- hows that for your isolinear chip? The article said such devices could be available for commercial use within one to three years.
One must approach these kinds of announcements with a degree of skepticism. Sometimes they are little more than fishing expeditions intended to drum up a little shareholder interest. Sometimes, they are completely legitimate, but other market pressures prevent the technologies from coming out in anything close to the stated time frame.
Not that I disagree in any way with your solid state goal! I'm with you 99.9997% on that one!