Biodegradable mems. Vocabbox. A lot of machines made by physicists are used in medicine now, страница 19

§  subwave length optical elements (SOEs)

§  essentially optical gratings

§  a series of parallel grooves

§  polarization beam splitters and combiners

§  a pliable polymer resist material

§  an anti-reflective coating

§  with extremely precise alignment and little coupling loss

verb collocations

§  provide the capacity

§  stretch all the way to

§  make smth to the end user

§  succeed in

§  cut the cost of packaging

§  be packaged by hand

§  be deposited on the structure

Pre-reading task

In each of the 3 parts of this article determine the major and minor items of information.

Reading

Read the text. Say whether these statements are true or false:

1.  The future belongs to optics.

2.  Optical equipment will become more expensive than it is today.

3.  Much of Nano Opto production process is identical to semiconductor fabrication.

4.  SOEs can’t perform the functions of a wide variety of optical components.

5.  Most optical communications components are packaged by hand.

Miniaturization and integration promise to improve the economics of realizing optical functions and - just as important - packaging them.

Amidst all the uncertainty about the future of the communications industry, one thing is clear: the future belongs to optics. Sure, radio will continue to play a big role in broadcasting and mobile communications, and copper won’t disappear entirely. But only optics - both fiber-based and free-space - can provide the capacity needed for the truly broadband future. In that era of applications like multimedia distance learning, video on demand, and videoconferencing good enough to replace air travel, when people and businesses exchange gigabytes of data as casually as they exchange kilobytes today, optics will dominate not only communications backbones, but will stretch all the way to the end user.

Of course, to make it to the end user - to succeed in this all-important “last mile”- optical equipment is going to have to become a lot less expensive than it is today.  Recent developments from Nano Opto Corp. (Somerset, N.J.) provide a preview of how that can be done: through miniaturization and integration. Those approaches make it easier to mass produce the optical devices themselves, but perhaps even more importantly, they promise to cut the cost of packaging, often the most expensive aspect of an optical component, and, at the same time, to improve unit-to-unit uniformity.

In much the same manner as a semiconductor manufacturer, NanoOpto can fabricate a wide variety of optical devices on the same production line. In fact, much of its production process is identical to semiconductor fabrication and is carried out with the same equipment.

In a certain sense, all Nano Opto devices are variations on the same theme. Called subwavelength optical elements (SOEs), they are all essentially optical gratings with dimensions much smaller than the wavelength of the radiation they are intended to manipulate. (The smallest dimension of an SOE intended to work with the wavelengths commonly encountered in optical communications would usually be a few tens of nanometers.)

Some devices are one-dimensional gratings (a series of parallel grooves); some consist of two sets of parallel grooves etched at right angles to each other (which leaves an array of pillars); and some are other patterns, like concentric circular grooves.

Comprehension check

Answer the following questions:

1.  What can provide the capacity needed for the truly broadband future?

2.  Will optics stretch all the way to the end user?

3.  What do they promise to do in order to make optical devices cheaper?

4.  What differentiates one SOE from another?

5.  Why can SOE be made to perform the functions of a wide variety of optical components?