US 6,982,819 B2
Electro-optic array interface
Ray Sawin, Collinsville, Conn. (US); and Salvador M. Fernández, Hartford, Conn. (US)
Assigned to Ciencia, Inc., East Hartford, Conn. (US)
Filed on Jun. 24, 2004, as Appl. No. 10/875,707.
Application 10/875707 is a continuation in part of application No. 10/842366, filed on May 10, 2004.
Prior Publication US 2005/0248830 A1, Nov. 10, 2005
Int. Cl. G02F 1/03 (2006.01); G02F 1/29 (2006.01); G02F 1/035 (2006.01); G02B 27/44 (2006.01); G01R 31/308 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 359—245 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
12. An addressable grating coupled surface plasmon resonance optical interconnect array comprising:
a dielectric substrate defining a diffraction grating;
a first array of electrodes in the form of a plurality of reflective metal strips on said diffraction grating;
an electro-optic polymer layer covering said plurality of metal strips, thereby defining a conductor-dielectric interface between said metal strips and said electro-optic polymer layer, said electro-optic polymer layer having a refractive index which changes in response to an electric field resulting in an electro-optic coefficient of at least approximately 10 pm/V;
a second array of electrodes in the form of transparent conductive stripes on said electro-optic layer, said second array of electrodes being substantially perpendicular to said first array of electrodes; and
an illuminator producing a wavelength of incident light through said electro-optic polymer layer which is grating coupled to a surface plasmon at said conductor-dielectric interface to produce a resonant condition characterized by reduced reflectance of the incident light from said metal strips,
wherein said first and second arrays of electrodes form an addressable grid for applying an electric field to selected portions of said electro-optic polymer layer, said applied electric field altering the index of refraction of the electro-optic polymer layer, thereby disrupting said resonant condition to produce an optically detectable change in the reflectance of incident light from the metal strip beneath said selected portion of electro-optic polymer layer.