APPENDIX E. QUESTIONNAIRE

Summary of JTEC Optoelectronics Panel Issues

Technologies to be examined in this study include:

design of optoelectronic devices and components, in particular those aspects intended to contribute to high volume and quality, and low cost, in production.
advances in fabrication and manufacturing of optoelectronic devices and components, especially those resulting in high volume, high quality, low cost.
advances in design and manufacture of solid state lasers, detectors and modulators (including VCSEL)
optical frequency intra-system communications design: both inter- and intra-chip
advanced optical memory devices
materials research as related to optoelectronic components
research and development of rare earth and polymer optical fibers

Related research issues to be covered may include:

the relative importance of the vertical integration of optoelectronic component manufacturing to successful consumer product manufacturing
methodologies/infrastructure specific to optoelectronic device industry for rapid transition of new devices through advanced development into commercial use

Questions under consideration for U.S. and Japanese site visits include:

On what segment(s) of the optoelectronic industry does your company focus?
What component/systems products is your company targeting for development and introduction over these time scales: a. 1 - 5 yrs; b. 5-10 yrs; c. >10 yrs
In meeting these application areas, what gaps exist in the current technology base?
What yield-limiting steps and challenges govern the manufacture of your various components and systems?
What are the major challenges you foresee in improving reliability?
For suppliers of optoelectronic equipment and components, what are the impediments to increasing market share and/or volume? What are the obstacles to reducing costs of production?
For customers of optoelectronic equipment and components, what are the barriers to increased use of optoelectronic components in finished products/systems?
What methodologies and infrastructure do view as specific to the optoelectronic device industry for rapid transition of new devices through advanced development and into commercial use?
What level of integration do you envision will ultimately result in useful OEICs, PICs (what devices, how many on a chip, where do we place the OEIC/hybrid circuit "interface")?
What are the roadblocks you perceive for the future of optical storage? Can one overcome these roadblocks with evolutionary progress with present (conventional) optical storage systems?

DETAILED QUESTIONS TO BE POSED TO U.S. AND JAPANESE COMPANIES VISITED BY THE JTEC OPTOELECTRONICS PANEL

Part I: Technical

General Questions
1. On what segment(s) of the optoelectronic industry does your company focus?
  1. Telecom systems
  2. Data links
  3. Components (active or inactive)
  4. Sensors
  5. Displays
  6. CATV
  7. Optical memories and disks
  8. Fibers and waveguides (plastic or glass)
  9. Consumer products
  10. Avionics and/or automotive
2. What component/systems products is your company targeting for development and introduction over the following time scales:
  1. 1 - 5 years
  2. 5-10 years
  3. >10 years
3. In meeting these application areas, what gaps exist in the current technology base?
4. What are the general timeframes associated with technology development from identification of potential (and perhaps basic research) through manufacture and production?
5. Do you make use of centralized technology capabilities and if so, to what level of technology development?
6. What yield-limiting steps and challenges govern the manufacture of your various components and systems? That is, what are the major yield issues to be overcome in the following general areas?
  1. Materials growth
  2. Device fabrication
  3. Packaging
  4. Reliability
  5. Systems integration and performance testing
7. What steps are you taking to improve component and system reliability? What are the major challenges you foresee confronting in improving reliability:
  1. In design
  2. In fabrication and assembly
  3. In systems integration
8. Describe the process of product design and manufacture at your company. Does it occur by a single team integrated from materials through device fab, packaging, systems integration and marketing, or are there several, tightly (or loosely) integrated teams?
9. For suppliers of optoelectronic equipment and components, what are the impediments to increasing market share and/or volume? What are the obstacles to reducing costs of production?
10. For customers of optoelectronic equipment and components, what are the barriers to increased use of optoelectronic components in finished products and systems?
11. What is your opinion on the relative importance of the vertical integration of optoelectronic component manufacturing to successful consumer product manufacturing?
12. What methodologies and infrastructure do view as specific to the optoelectronic device industry for rapid transition of new devices through advanced development and into commercial use?
13. What is your view on how to expose new devices to system experiments (the subject of the new U.S. - Japanese agreement to cooperate in optoelectronics)?.
14. What is the size and scope of your activities in standards and metrology?
15. What can you tell us about the NEDO (Japan) project which includes "industrial technologies, such as ultra-advanced manufacturing systems?" Does this project include applications in optoelectronics?
16. In your company, what percentage of the overall investment in optoelectronics technology is directed at the development of:
  1. new materials
  2. improved manufacturing processes
  3. Improved packaging
  4. improved precision alignment, assembly and pig-tailing
17. Which automated processes are key in the development of a low-cost manufacturing capability?
18. To what extent and where do you use automation in your optoelectronic manufacturing processing? Please describe your automation in water handling and processing, optical inspection, electrical and optical testing, and pigtailing and packaging. Describe your criteria for switching a process from manual to automated.
19. In your company's experience in bringing a new optoelectronic product from concept to production, please comment, on a percentage basis, on the relative resources devoted to each stage of the process (e.g., material R&D, basic device R&D, prototype development, manufacturing R&D (yield enhancement), reliability/qualification testing, and package development). could you please comment on a specific product.
20. Describe your company's efforts in attachment of multiple fibers to optical chips. What technology are you using? Is the attachment process multiple fibers simultaneously? What manufactured products are envisioned to use this attachment technology and when do you plan to transfer the technology to manufacturing?
Fibers and Sensors
1. Remote Illumination (Specialty Fibers)
  1. What specialty fiber types are being used? (for example, PCS, plastic, large-core, glass)
  2. What size bundles, NA, core and clad diameters, loss spectrum, cost, temperature range, power handling capability, coatings.
  3. What sources and systems are used to couple light? What is the efficiency, and brightness
  4. What applications are envisioned, and what is the anticipated market?
2. Autonomous Vehicle Sensors
  1. What fraction of tethered vs. non-tethered vehicles exist today? 2000? 2010?
  2. For tethered vehicles, what type and length of fiber might be used? (i.e., SM or MM, PCS or all plastic)
  3. Is today's fiber gyro technology sufficiently accurate for non-tethered guidance? What optical sensors are being used? (i.e., rotation, strain..)
  4. What is the innovation stage for this work? (i.e., Research, Development, Pilot Production Commercial...)
3. Rotation Sensors (Fiber Optics Gyroscopes)
  1. What type SM fiber is being used? (i.e., elliptic core, stress rod...)
  2. What are the present and projected drift rates (o/hr)?
  3. Is the technology cost effective and what are limiting cost elements?
  4. Is planar FO gyro possible with today's technology? How does it compare w/GPS? Cost? Accuracy? Differential Accuracy? Access time? Refresh time?
  5. What stage of innovation is the FO gyro? (i.e., research, development, pilot production, commercial)
4. Fiber Optic Strain Sensors
  1. What types of FO strain sensors are being considered? (i.e., fiber gratings, microbend...)
  2. What current markets have been identified for strain sensors? By the year 2000? By 2010?
  3. What are the characteristics of the sensors, such as: detectable strain limits and accuracy, expected lifetime in the deployed state, sensor frequency response?
  4. What materials have been studied for photorefractive effects? What refractive index changes and how fast can gratings be generated with H2 impregnation? What are the temperature effects on fiber gratings
  5. What is the preferred method of grating generation? (i.e., photomask, beam interference...)
  6. Do OTDRs exist today with sufficient wavelength range? What is the temporal resolution? how long are the systems?
  7. What field tests have been conducted of strain sensors?
5. Optical Chemical Sensors
  1. What are the current detection limits for SOx, NOx, CO2, Cl2? Other materials? What sensing techniques are being explored? (is Absorption, fluorescent...)
  2. What sensitivity limits are projected for the year 2000?, By 2010?
  3. Where do you anticipate the major markets for chemical sensors (e.g. automotive, environmental, process control, etc.)
  4. Are point sensors using optical telemetry for readout?
  5. What are the operational characteristics of the sensors, including their temperature sensitivity, useable temperature range, linearity, etc.?
6. Optical Medical Sensors
  1. What sensing techniques are being investigated? (i.e. fluorescence, spectral absorption, pressure....), and what are their current detection limits (ng/mol) and response speeds? By 2000? By 2010?
  2. What is the relative effort being spent on in vitro and in vivo sensing?
  3. Can monitoring be done in whole blood?
  4. What is the innovation stage of FO or opto-electronic critical care room sensing?
7. Laser Surgery (Specialty Fibers)
  1. What type fiber is being used for laser surgery (e.g., PCS, glass, etc.)
  2. How is power being delivered to the patient? (i.e., optical scalpel)
  3. What materials are used for the optical scalpel? How much power is carried in the fiber (Watts) at what wavelength? Do you anticipate that semi-conductor diodes be able to supply sufficient power?
  4. What is the input coupling efficiency?
  5. What is the progress in training surgeons to use these instruments? What surgical procedures are done with FO/Lasers (i.e., angioplasty, minor surgery, major surgery....)
8. Endoscopy (Specialty Fibers)
  1. What fibers are being used in endoscopy today? (i.e., PCS, all glass...)
  2. What is the major cost source?
  3. What is status of endoscope technology? That is what is their resolution, crosstalk, contrast, etc. ?
  4. What lenses are being used in systems, and what are the current and projected field of view, contrast, depth of focus, minimum working distance from distal end?
  5. Are the units disposable?
9. Sensors technology: What efforts are you currently pursuing in optical sensors and sensor systems not specified above?
Devices, Components, and Packaging for Optoelectronics
1. What discrete devices does your company manufacture?
  1. Lasers and detectors
  2. Optical modulators
  3. DFB lasers
  4. VCSELs
  5. Avalanche photodiodes
  6. Waveguide-based devices
  7. Fiber-based devices (wavelength selective couplers, etc.)
  8. Micro-optic devices, lens arrays, etc.
2. Component technology: What specific application areas are you targeting for your components?
  1. Telecom systems
  2. Data links
  3. Sensor systems
  4. Displays
  5. CATV
  6. Optical memories
  7. Consumer products
3. What fraction of your component effort is dedicated to:
  1. High performance discrete devices
  2. Low cost discrete devices
  3. High performance integrated devices
  4. Low cost integrated devices?
4. Are you planning to develop vertical-cavity lasers (VCSELs) for your future systems applications? If so:
  1. for what purpose?
  2. what wavelength?
  3. what required power?
  4. what modulation bandwidth?
  5. is single lateral mode required?
5. VCSELs: What applications do you envision will provide the largest near term market for this technology?
6. Have you developed a package for vertical-cavity lasers? If so:
  1. is it for single elements or arrays?
  2. is it fiber pigtailed or for free-space optics?
  3. is it connectorized?
  4. is fiber ribbon cable used
  5. what connector type is used?
7. Are you planning to develop WDM-based communication systems using WDM architectures for future applications? If so, what components need further development for your future WDM systems?
  1. Tunable lasers
  2. Laser arrays coupled to single fibers
  3. Tunable receivers
  4. Receiver arrays coupled to single fibers
  5. Integrated laser-modulators
  6. Integrated preamplifier-detectors
  Please comment on the important issues involved in moving these components into production.
8. Does your company have an effort in optoelectronic integrated circuits?
  1. Transmitters
  2. Receivers
  3. TDM
  4. WDM
  5. Modulators
  6. Surface emitting lasers
  7. Smart pixels
9. Does your company have an effort in photonic integrated circuits?
  1. Transmitters
  2. Receivers
  3. T/R Arrays
  4. Laser and photodiode arrays
  5. TDM
  6. WDM
  7. Modulators
  8. Surface emitting lasers
  9. Smart pixels
  10. SEED-based devices
10. Are you pursuing array technology? For what applications? What devices are you intending to commercialize in array format? What type of electronic circuitry will be packaged with the photonic device array?
11. What level of integration do you envision will ultimately result in useful OEICs, PICs (what devices, how many on a chip, where do we place the OEIC/hybrid circuit "interface", etc.)
12. For optoelectronic transmitters and receivers, what is the status of your hybrid and monolithic OEIC activities? At what volumes/yr. and performance/pricing do you believe the OEIC approach will be technically and economically preferred? Please comment separately on components for long-haul telecom, datacom, and fiber-to-the-home.
13. Describe the key breakthroughs in manufacturing technology that have enable your company to make low cost CD lasers.
14. What do you see as the key manufacturing issues in reducing the cost of optical fiber amplifiers?
15. What do you see as the key manufacturing issues in reducing the cost of fiber optic gyroscopes?
16. Packaging science and technology: Is package development for optoelectronics done by the same group as device development?
17. Which of the following packaging technologies are you investigating for optoelectronic devices:
  1. Flip chip
  2. Lift-off
  3. Electron beam welding
  4. Laser beam welding
  5. Hermetic, high performance packages
  6. Plastic, or low cost packages?
18. Do you have an effort in multi-chip modules for optoelectronics? What type of MCMs are being pursued, and for what applications?
Systems
1. What are the major characteristics of your system/device technologies?
  1. High performance (>1GHz, multiple channels, long haul)
  2. Moderate performance (100 MHz - 1 GHZ, multiple channels, long haul and local area networks)
  3. Low cost (<100 MHz, multiple channel, short haul and sensor, consumer, automotive, etc.)
2. Are you planning to develop short-haul links or local area networks using plastic or glass multimode fibers? If so:
  1. for what purpose?
  2. what wavelength?
  3. what data rate?
  4. what kind of fibers?
  5. what kind of optical sources?
  6. what kind of receivers?
  7. what kind of network architecture?
3. Are you planning to develop optically interconnected systems using free-space architectures? If so:
  1. for what purposes?
  2. what are the key issues in need of solutions for this development?
  3. what sort of transmitter components are to be used -- lasers or modulators?
  4. what kind of optics will be required for this kind of interconnection?
  5. will functional receiver/transmitter components with inherent latching properties be used?
4. Does your company use the components for in-house manufactured systems, or does your company develop devices for commercialization (or both?)
5. If your system uses optoelectronic components not manufactured in-house, what performance, reliability, quality-control, and design-change control requirements do you place on the manufacturer?
6. What measures do you take to assure highest quality and reliability in shipped products?
7. How do you track field reliability? Infant mortality?
8. What steps do you institute if field reliability problems appear?
9. How do you plan for product evolution? How far into the future?
10. How close do you see fiber reaching to the residential customer and small-business customers by the year 2000? By 2010? By 2020?
Materials
1. What enabling materials technologies are you pursuing?
  1. II-VI
  2. Wide gap III-V
  3. Porous Si
  4. Organic thin films (polymers and or vacuum deposited organics)
  5. Ferroelectrics
  6. GaAs and InP
  7. Si (in support of optoelectronic devices)
2. Explain your selection of a particular type of epitaxial growth system for optoelectronic production (e.g., MOCVD vs. MBE).
Memories
1. What are the size and scope of your activities in optical storage?
2. What type of optical storage device(s) is your company developing or producing?
3. Does your company produce non-optical storage systems?
4. What are your present optical storage product(s) and their performance parameters?
  1. cost per MB
  2. capacity
  3. access time
  4. data transfer rates
  5. storage density-system size-required system power.
5. Describe the process of product design and manufacture in your company. Is the product entirely produced in your company? If not, how much (in percentage) of it is produced in your company? What are the items you purchase from outside vendors? Percentage purchased from US companies, Japanese companies, and European Companies?
6. What is the main application area (market) you are targeting with your present product?
7. How many people are working in your company in optical storage. Percentage in production line; percentage in R&D?
8. What do you expect the performance parameters your company will achieve with its storage devices by the year 2000? 2010?
  1. cost per Mb
  2. capacity
  3. access time
  4. data transfer rates
  5. storage density-system size-required system power
9. What is the main application area (market) you envision targeting your product at the year 2000? 2010? What are the basic requirements to be competitive for this application?
10. What R&D efforts are you carrying out to reach your performance goals by the year 2000?
  1. at the media level
  2. at the device (optical heads, lasers)
  3. at the system level
11. What are the roadblocks you perceive for the future of optical storage?
  1. fundamental limits being reached
  2. competition with magnetic storage
  3. small market share
  4. manufacturing and high production costs
  5. other
12. Can one overcome these roadblocks with evolutionary progress with present (conventional) optical storage systems? If yes:
  1. What type of R&D and facilities are needed?
  2. What is the relative importance of new components such as VCSELs, blue lasers, diffractive optics etc. for optical storage?
  3. Do you have any programs in your company such devices or do you count on other companies to develop an produce these devices?
  4. How important is vertical integration in optoelectronics for producing optical storage products?
13. Do you envision using new system architectures in optical storage such as an optical RAID?
14. Is there any new manufacturing tooling required to produce next generation components for memories? If yes, what are they?
15. Do you think more aggressive revolutionary concepts for optical storage should be pursued, e.g.:
  1. parallel access
  2. bit oriented volume storage
  3. holographic volume storage
  Is your company pursuing such revolutionary approaches? If so, which ones?

Part II: Economic

Gary R. Saxonhouse
Department of Economics
University of Michigan

How is Optoelectronics defined in Japan? What products (e.g. optoelectronic integrated circuits) are included in that definition? what technologies are included?
What role does the Japanese government play in supporting basic research, applied research and product development in optoelectronics? Are there any special provisions of the Japanese tax code that might benefit optoelectronics more than other industries? Which Japanese ministries and which bureaus within those ministries have responsibility for optoelectronics? Does private sector optoelectronic research and product development receive any direct subsidies from the Japanese government? What grants are made by the Japanese government to Japanese companies for optoelectronic research? What grants are made by the Ministry of Education to Japanese universities for optoelectronic research?
Is there an official report available on the results of research undertaken by Optoelectronics Joint Research Laboratory (Optoelectronics Technology Research Corporation; Optoelectronics portion of the Real World Computing Project)? What selection criteria were used by MITI to decide on who should participate? What were (are) the financial arrangements supporting the Optoelectronics Joint Research Laboratory (Optoelectronics Technology Research Corporation; Optoelectronics portion of the Real World Computing Project)? Did (Do) researchers from different companies work together on the same project within the Laboratory? Do any of the patents resulting from work done at the Laboratory bear the names of researchers from different companies? Are all the patents resulting from work at the Optoelectronics Joint Research Laboratory (Optoelectronics Technology Research Corporation; Optoelectronics portion of the Real World Computing Project) licensed to member firms on the same basis? Do license fees differ between member and non-member firms? How much licensing has actually taken place? Did (Has) the objectives of the Optoelectronics Joint Research Laboratory (Optoelectronics Technology Research Corporation; Optoelectronics portion of the Real World Computing Project) change (changed) over time? Were (are) the contributions of private companies to the Optoelectronics Joint Research Laboratory (Optoelectronics Technology Research Corporation; Optoelectronics portion to the Real World Computing Project) only for work done (being done) at their own company or did (does) it also include support for research physically done (being done) at the Laboratory (Corporation, Project)?
Are any new joint government-business research and development projects contemplated? What government research laboratories are doing work that is useful for the development of optoelectronics? Are researchers from private companies working on loan on these projects? What are the terms under which patents held by government research laboratories are licensed to private companies? Are the terms the same as those offered to foreign companies?
Are there estimates of the total amount of optoelectronics R&D ongoing in Japan? Can this be broken down between private companies, government research laboratories and universities? Are separate estimates available of the personnel involved in research desegregated by private company, university and government research institute? How much Japanese-sponsored R&D is conducted abroad? How much foreign-sponsored R&D is conducted in Japan? How much turnover is there in the R&D personnel working on optoelectronic projects? Is a change in hiring practices expected in the future?
Haw the Ministry of Education initiated curricula ranges designed to increase the supply of scientists and engineers with advanced degrees who are well versed in optoelectronic research issues? What proportion of the Japanese researchers doing work on optoelectronics have advanced degrees? What proportion have been trained abroad? How many scientific papers are published each in Japanese on optoelectronics? How many scientific papers optoelectronics authored by Japanese-based in Japan or Japanese-sponsored researchers working elsewhere, are published in English each year? How often are Japanese optoelectronics papers cited in other scientific papers compared to those of other countries? How often are Japanese optoelectronics patents cited in other patents or patent applications? Will Japanese professors at public universities be allowed in the future to participate in research projects not sponsored by the Ministry of Education?
Is it possible to predict the technological trajectory over the next ten years in any of the major product areas of optoelectronics? If it isn't, how is it possible to make an estimate of the future sales of optoelectronics products?
Is it expected that the major optoelectronics technologies will be characterized by large economies of scale or learning economics in production? Will these large economies of scale prevent a competitive market structure for some optoelectronic products in the future?
Is it expected that most of the future products embodying Japanese optoelectronics technologies will be produced in Japan in the future? Is it expected that future product development embodying Japanese optoelectronics technologies will be done in Japan? What kinds of Japanese corporate alliances built around optoelectronic technologies can be expected? What kinds of optoelectronics joint venture between Japanese companies and foreign companies can be expected? What alliances presently exist? What equity positions do Japanese companies have in foreign optoelectronics firms?
Does the case being made for government support for the optoelectronics industry rely on technological spillovers and strategic linkages? Does concern about foreign government support of optoelectronics play any role? Is it expected that the physical proximity of different optoelectronics firms will stimulate optoelectronics in Japan?
What is the size distribution of companies doing optoelectronics research in Japan? Do Japanese employment practices and the Japanese financial system handicap small optoelectronic firms in Japan?
Is it possible to obtain a copy of the optoelectronics Industry and Technological Development Association Statistical yearbook? Are their forecasts also available?

Published: February 1996; WTEC Hyper-Librarian