Optical highways - No traffic lights required at the intersections

Aongus McCarthy

There is considerable interest in incorporating "optical pathways", within metre-scale; electrical printed circuit boards (PCBs). This photograph shows optical waveguides (50 μm square cross-section cores with cladding) that have been formed in polymer on a PCB substrate material using a UV laser-writing system. (Scale: The radius of curvature of the smaller bends is approximately 15 mm).