High Density Interconnect (HDI) printed circuits are now being designed in ever-increasing quantities for very high speed applications. The challenge of opto-electronics and integration of photonics into the printed circuit has started to take off. In the next seven years, expectations are that photonic PCBs will grow to a $2.5 billion industry.

This paper looks at the issues, materials and current processes being researched to create this integrated Opto-Electronic Circuit Board by European, Japanese and North American organizations. In addition to reviewing the global players in polymer photonics, this paper will review the current programs of four of the six groups globally:

• EOBC-OptoFoil (Univ. of Ulm, Fraunhafer Inst, Daimler-Chrysler, Siemens)
• Truemode (Terahertz)
• PolyGuide (Dupont, HP)
• OptoBump (NTT)
• TOPCat (NIST, 3M, Goodyear)
• JIEP