Performance of 50 Completed ATP Projects Status Report - Number 2 NIST SP 950-2 Chapter 2 - Advanced Materials and Chemicals
IBM Corporation Methods for Making New Optical Switches

Faster, Cheaper Optical Transmission of Data
Optical fiber is rapidly replacing metal wires in terrestrial and oceanic transmission, both for voice and data, because of cost savings and improved performance. Optical methods also have a potential advantage for transmitting information from component to component within computers. If optical signals could replace electrical signals in this context, bandwidth could be multiplied many fold, while heat generation and cross-talk — significant problems in computers — could be greatly reduced.

New Optoelectronic Polymer and Prototype Switches
IBM’s ATP project aimed to develop optical switches to link the optical fibers running between components in computers. Current-generation switches convert data from an optical to an electrical signal, do the necessary switching, and then convert the data back to an optical signal, a process that involves expensive components and significantly limits the speed of the system. IBM’s proposed technology would help achieve the technical advantages of optical signals over electrical signals in computers.

IBM researchers succeeded in developing high-speed, inexpensive optoelectronic switches using nonlinear optical polymeric waveguides suitable for use in the data communications industry. Specifically, the project developed a general method for identifying and synthesizing particular dipolar molecules, known as chromophores, that are chemically stable at temperatures exceeding 300 C. Researchers were able to incorporate these molecules into thermally stable polymers, producing the desired optoelectronic polymer.

Market Fails to Materialize as Expected
Commercialization by IBM is not expected in the foreseeable future, even though IBM completed working prototypes of polymeric switches. The need for such switches in the envisioned application changed, and a broad market opportunity did not materialize. Technological change in this industry is rapid, and trends can suddenly switch directions.

New Opportunities Arising
The rapid expansion of digital data transmission, however, is likely to open up opportunities for low-cost, high-speed optoelectronic switches in the future, and devices based on polymeric materials are viable candidates. Thus, chances are good that this technology will ultimately be used in important applications. Of the six key researchers on the project, five have left the company for other jobs. Knowledge spillover may occur elsewhere, as these researchers use their knowledge of the technology in new applications. They conjecture that the technology may be useful in the near future in telecommunications, rather than in computers. One potential application, according to project researchers, is in wavelength division multiplexing (sending light of more than one wavelength through a single optical fiber), where the technology might provide significant enhancements for high-speed, broad-band telecommunications. Another possible application is in microprocessor chip-to-chip interconnects, but semiconductor industry experts suggest that the need for those interconnects may not become apparent for 10 or more years or might not ever arise.

No broad market benefits have emerged yet, because there are no commercial products incorporating the technology, either in the intended or other applications. It is likely, however, that the rapidly expanding use of digital data communication will lead to opportunities for low-cost, high-speed optoelectronic switches in the future. The ATP-funded technology is a core technology for the polymeric materials and devices that IBM demonstrated, and these products have potential in a number of future applications.

Through its research under ATP funding, IBM was able to gain access to cutting-edge work being done on optoelectronic devices at the University of Colorado. The support enabled company researchers to publish more than 20 papers in professional journals, enabling the technology to be disseminated among other researchers. The knowledge gains are well documented.

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Date created: April 2002
Last updated: April 12, 2005

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