This paper reports soft actuator based tactile stimulation interfaces applicable to wearable devices. The soft actuator is prepared by multi-layered accumulation of thin electro-active polymer (EAP) films. The multi-layered actuator is designed to produce electrically-induced convex protrusive deformation, which can be dynamically programmable for wide range of tactile stimuli. The maximum vertical protrusion is 650 μm and the output force is up to 255 mN. The soft actuators are embedded into the fingertip part of a glove and front part of a forearm band, respectively. We have conducted two kinds of experiments with 15 subjects. Perceived magnitudes of actuator's protrusion and vibrotactile intensity were measured with frequency of 1 Hz and 191 Hz, respectively. Analysis of the user tests shows participants perceive variation of protrusion height at the finger pad and modulation of vibration intensity through the proposed soft actuator based tactile interface.

Efficient outcoupling of surface-plasma waves to radiation modes by use of dielectric diffraction gratings on a flat metallic surface is discussed. The dielectric gratings, which have a surface-relief structure with only several tens of nanometers in peak-to-trough height on a flat metal surface, can efficiently extract radiation modes propagating in free space from the surface-plasmon modes. An outcoupling efficiency of 50% is estimated with the rigorous coupled-wave diffraction theory, and it is confirmed by the experiment.

Polymers are emerging as new alternative materials for optical communication devices. We developed two types of polymer-based devices for optical communications. One type is for ultra high-speed signal processing that uses nonlinear optical (NLO) polymers in such devices as electro -optic (EO) Mach-Zëhnder (MZ) modulators and EO 2×2 switches. The other is for WDM optical communications that use low-loss optical polymers in such devices as 1×2, 2×2, 4-arrayed 2×2 digital optical switches (DOSs) and 16×16 arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) routers. For these devices, we synthesized a polyetherimide-disperse red 1 (PEI-DR1) side chain NLO polymer and a low-loss optical polymer known as fluorinated polyaryleneethers (FPAE). This paper presents the details of our development of these polymeric photonic devices considering all aspects from materials to packaging.

To improve the propagation loss of polymer-based long-range surface-plasmon-polariton (LR-SPP) waveguide devices at the telecom wavelength range, low-loss LR-SPP waveguides were fabricated in an ultraviolet-curable acrylate polymer with a low refractive index and absorption loss. A propagation loss of 1.72 dB/cm at a wavelength of 1.55 mum was achieved with a 14-nm-thick and 3-mum-wide metal stripe.

We demonstrate sub-dB/cm propagation losses in polymer-based silver stripe waveguides at the wavelength of 1.31 μm. The silver stripe waveguides were fabricated in a low-loss fluorinated polymer clad. To form uniform metal stripe patterns, which are essential for reducing propagation loss, we developed a lift-off process using double layers of photoresist and SiN_x. A propagation loss of less than 1.0 dB/cm was obtained with the 11-nm-thick silver stripes in the width range of 1.5 - 4.5 μm. A coupling loss of ~1.0 dB with a polarization maintaining single mode fiber was achieved for a width of 4.5 μm. For a width of 2.0 μm, we recorded a minimum propagation loss of 0.4 dB/cm, which is comparable with that of dielectric multi-mode waveguides.

We present characteristics of very thin Au strip waveguides based on long-range surface plasmon polaritons (LR-SPPs) along thin Au strips embedded in polymers. We also report a 10 Gbps optical signal transmission via LR-SPPs with the pig-tailed Au strip waveguide at a telecommunication wavelength of 1.55 mum. We limited the thickness, width, and length up to ~20 nm, ~ 10 mum, and ~5 cm, respectively, for practical applications. At 1.55 mum, loss properties of the Au strip waveguides were theoretically and experimentally evaluated with thickness, width and cladding material. The lowest propagation loss of ~1.4 dB/cm was experimentally obtained with the 14-nm-thick and 2-mum-wide Au strip. With a single-mode fiber, the lowest coupling loss of less than 0.1 dB/facet was achieved with the 14-nm-thick and 7.5-mum-wide Au strip. The lowest insertion loss was obtained 7.7 dB with the 14-nm-thick, 5-mum-wide, and 1.5-cm-long Au strip. The propagation loss was improved approximately 30% for the 17-nm-thick Au strip with lowering the refractive index of the cladding polymer by 0.01. In the 10 Gbps optical signal transmission experiment, the LR-SPP waveguide exhibits an excellent eye opening and a 2.2 dB power penalty at 10^-12 bit error rate. These all results indicate that the LR-SPP waveguide is a potential transmission line for optical interconnects to overcome inherent problems in electric interconnects.