To address the needs of customers in the $65-billion optoelectronics market, Dow Corning Corp. has announced that its photonics solutions business development program will become part of the company’s mainstream electronics business. As a result, the company will increase its sales, marketing and product development activities to support creation of light management applications for a vast range of markets, including automotive, displays and telecommunications.

The new Light Management Group will focus on helping customers around the globe develop and commercialize applications that rely on the emission, transmission, amplification, detection, modulation and switching of light. Dow Corning’s intensified focus on light-based applications comes as device manufacturers require performance improvements such as faster data transmission rates and more efficient light throughput than what conventional electronic devices can deliver. The high optical transmission, good transmittance and design flexibility of silicon-based materials make them a key enabling technology for light-based applications.

The Light Management group offers photonics products, services and technology solutions to meet optoelectronics customer needs. The initial focus of the group includes commercializing encapsulants and lenses for light-emitting diodes (LED) as well as materials for optical assemblies, fiber optics and light pipe/guidance applications. The group also provides a range of services, from optical waveguide prototyping and R&D contracting to total supply chain management solutions.

Dow Corning also expects to develop optical interconnect and holographic material technologies, innovations that the company has been exploring through key collaborations with optical IC maker Gemfire Corporation and Aprilis, Inc., a holographic media and data storage system developer.

According to the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association (OIDA), optoelectronics-enabled systems represented a $223-billion market in 2004; of that, optoelectronic components accounted for $65 billion, while optoelectronic materials represented a $14-billion market.

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