Recently, the installation of optical fiber networks has grown at an accelerating pace. Designed to receive and transmit light signals, split and couple them or control intensity levels, optical communications devices are central to these networks. Formerly, these devices were mostly designed for public infrastructures. Accordingly, they were limited in production volume and were very costly. However, beyond public sector usage, OMRON targeted consumers to reduce costs. Optical devices were formerly constructed through the combination of lenses, mirrors, filters and other optical components. Now, however, an optical IC is fabricated by packaging various optical component functions onto a single substrate. This is, in fact, an integration of optical circuits called "optical waveguides." Optical waveguides are usually fabricated through conventional semiconductor processes. These processes can reduce costs by increasing component packaging density. But for optical waveguides with a predetermined packaging density, cost reduction has its limits. OMRON's applications require low cost and high volume production. By developing SPICA technology, which significantly lowers production costs, a major barrier to the spread of optical communications, OMRON is well positioned to expand optical communications technology into ordinary households. In the field of optical communications, optical ICs have attracted a great deal of attention as key devices. OMRON was well aware of this and adopted its proprietary high-precision micro-pattern replication techniques to perfect a SPICA optical waveguide and thus radically reduce costs.

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Micro Lens Arrays (MLAs)
SPICA (Stacked Polymer optical IC/Advanced) Technology