PolyPhotonics Berlin

Eleven regional enterprises and three research institutes teamed up as part of the innovation initiative 'Unternehmen Region' (Regional Enterprise) by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. They form part of the 'PolyPhotonics Berlin' Growth Center. For the first time, the network partners will be able to implement comprehensive solutions using optical components made of polymer, which are globally not yet available in this form. The participants in this initiative want to create innovative materials and procedures for the production and assembly of photonic multiple-use components.
The PolyPhotonics Technology Platform provides a toolbox of hybrid-optical building blocks. Using suitable technologies, members of the initiative put these basic building blocks together to form flexible modules for integration into compact functional components of very flexible build (hybrid integration).  
At the core of the platform is a chip with optical waveguides, which are made of polymer. This chip may feature further passive elements such as optical fibers, thin film filters and micro-optics as well as active elements such as photodiodes or laser chips. In micro technological procedures, the latter components are connected to the waveguide chip (see illustration).
To showcase the technology platform the partners develop Telecom/Datacom components such as multiplexers, 10G or 100 GE transceivers and tunable lasers for terahertz or analytical applications and interrogator solutions for fiber Bragg grating sensor systems.