INDUSTRY

Lumera Corporation, a leader in the emerging field of nanotechnology, announced that it had received an order from Optoelectronics Industry Development Association (OIDA). The association administers the Photonics Technology Access Program sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for interaction with Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Working collaboratively with Duke, Lumera will develop optical interconnect and wafer scale photonic integrated devices using the company's polymer photonic technology and fabrication expertise combined with Duke's optoelectronic passive and active optoelectronic device integration technologies. The modulators will be used as optical interconnects in Duke's integrated optoelectronic micro and nano systems. Leading the team at Duke University is Dr. Nan Jokerst, J. A. Jones Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University and Executive Director of the Shared Materials Instrumentation Facility. Tom Mino, CEO of Lumera, said, "The research being done by Dr. Jokerst and her team at Duke paves the way for taking optoelectronic and passive optical components from discrete to integrated systems. The magnitude of this achievement is similar to the electronic integrated circuit revolution. We are extremely pleased to be a part of this effort." Computing and microprocessors are undergoing a revolutionary transformation. As clock speeds have risen within the microprocessors of today's computers, so have power consumption, heat production and electromagnetic interference. Lumera Corporation has developed a platform of technologies that enable photonic connections to microchips that has the potential to significantly change the shape of computers in the years ahead. These advances will have a dramatic affect on the size and configuration of computer systems and their applications spanning today's commercial computing, super computers, and multiple processors in systems like the common automobile where these will be linked by fiber optics and communicate at the speed of light. Duke University is working on several areas of opportunity including optical interconnects at the system on a package (SOP) and system on a chip (SOC) levels. They are also developing on-chip optical interfaces to external optical interconnects, "smart pixel" systems (e.g., imagers), planar lightwave circuits, and biochemical chip-scale sensing systems. These applications have very large potential markets in integrated sensor systems, environmental sensing, medical diagnostics and sensing, and bio/chemical integrated "sensor on a chip" systems.