Integrated optical chips consists basically of stacks of thin films on (silicon) substrates with different optical properties to form optical paths. These, so called, waveguide structures are built up with cladding and core layers.

C2V offers OEM development and production of integrated optics components. The design and simulation is done in house, using our own professional software package OlympIOs.
Thanks to the unique combination of our world-class functional design expertise and intimate knowledge of wafer fab capabilities, C2V can achieve the best possible performance and yield for your application.

The optical sensor is an on-chip integrated Mach-Zehnder interferometer, i.e. it measures refractive index changes. Also absolute values can be derived using a calibration procedure.
These refractive index changes can be measured in a gas or a liquid, which can be a measure of other parameters like humidity or concentration.
The main advantages of optical sensing are: remote sensing, extremely high sensitivity, small dimensions, low power consumption, possibility of spectral fingerprinting.
Beside the high performance interferometer, also solutions for simple, robust, and lower cost optical sensors are offered.

Typical Specifications

• index of refraction (n) = 2
• resolution (?nmin): = 10-7
• measurement range (?nmix): =10-1
• Immunity to Electromagnetic Interference (EMI)
• No spark or fire hazards

Typical Applications

• remote sensing of:liquid refractive index, mixture composition, gas concentrations, (kinetics of) biochemical reactions
• process industry
• environmental control
• extremely large dynamic range