Lightwave Logic Inc., an optical communications technology company, has acquired the polymer technology and intellectual property assets of Chromosol Ltd., a spinout company from Queen Mary, University of London. The acquisition strengthens Lightwave Logic’s design capabilities with foundry process design kits (PDKs) with extremely low-temperature atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes that effectively hermetically seal polymer devices that have been prepared for high-volume manufacturing.

The advanced fabrication processes of ALD with temperatures below 100 ºC will solidify the company’s market position with both its manufacturing foundry partners and its end users as it prepares to enter the 800-Gbit/s integrated photonics marketplace.

The acquisition also strengthens Lightwave Logic’s patent portfolio of electro-optic polymer technology. Among the acquired assets is a patent for polymer chemistry device with the potential to increase performance of integrated modulators through optical amplification in a PIC. The device can enhance the functionality of the PIC by integrated laser light sources made using the polymer-based gain and a laser optical cavity defined on the silicon photonic platform with Lightwave Logic’s modulators.

Michael Lebby, CEO of Lightwave Logic, said, “Chromosol’s polymer technology and intellectual property patent dovetails well with Lightwave Logic’s development of a polymer platform that not only enables ‘green photonics’ — but is foundry compatible with manufacturing PDKs.”

According to Lebby, access to extremely low-temperature ALD allows the company’s polymer modulators to be protected from the environment without the need of expensive and large footprint gold box packaging, propelling the company forward with chip-scale packaging as required by major hyperscaler end users.

“What is more interesting is that every foundry we have visited has ALD systems and equipment in place for semiconductor processing,” Lebby said. “This acquisition for low-temperature ALD processes provides a key piece of the PDK that we need when working with foundries for our polymers, and allows us to achieve our goals more effectively.”