Sensors:
As for the proposed Biotechnology applications, Inplane has the capabilities to design and manufacture
optical components for sensing biological, chemical and radiation hazards. In many instances established
optical approaches can be adapted for use on the PLC platform. It is straight forward to combine a number
of different sensors on a chip and to interface this chip to a communication network in PLC technology.
In sensors based on evanescent coupling, the robustness provided by the PLC chip is much superior to
fiber sensors, which have inherent fragility arising from the structural role of the cladding which
has to be removed to facilitate coupling to the fiber core. The ability to use single-mode devices
instead of multimode fibers can also provide enhanced sensitivity.
Lower-cost, integrated PLC transceivers can also be developed for fiber Bragg grating sensors
increasingly used for physical environment sensing.
