Lumera, Duke to Develop Photonic Devices

BOTHELL, Wash., March 29, 2006 -- Lumera Corp., a developer of polymer materials and products through nanotechnology, announced it will be working with Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering to develop photonic integrated devices after receiving an order from the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association (OIDA).

OIDA, a Washington, DC-based non-profit association that promotes optoelectronics, administers the Photonics Technology Access Program sponsored by the National Science Foundation and DARPA specifically for industry collaboration with Duke's Pratt School of Engineering in Durham, N.C. It presented Lumera with the photonic devices order, the specific terms of which were not disclosed.

Working with Duke, Lumera will develop optical interconnect and wafer-scale photonic integrated devices using its polymer photonic technology and fabrication expertise combined with Duke's optoelectronic passive and active optoelectronic device integration technologies, Lumera said. The modulators will be used as optical interconnects in Duke's integrated optoelectronic micro- and nanosystems.

Leading the team at Duke is Nan Jokerst, the university's J. A. Jones Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and executive director of the Shared Materials Instrumentation Facility. Lumera CEO Tom Mino said in a statement announcing the collaboration, "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."

According to Lumera, computing and microprocessors are undergoing a revolutionary transformation, because as clock speeds have risen within the microprocessors of today's computers, so have power consumption, heat production and electromagnetic interference. Lumera said it 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.

In its statement, Lumera said Duke is working on several areas of opportunity, including optical interconnects at the system-on-a-package and system-on-a-chip 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, according to Lumera.

For more information, visit: www.lumera.com