The US government has awarded a $1.6 million contract to Lumera Corp., a subsidiary of Microvision Inc., to design electro-optic polymer materials suitable for the assemblage of a wideband optical modulator demonstration system.

Lumera says its prototype active and passive components for optical networks have achieved bandwidth over 100 GHz and have operated on less than 1 V in demonstrations at commercial and government research labs.

The company's component development is based on proprietary electro-optical materials that were developed with its research partners at the University of Washington.