In the spring of 2008 LWLG made this announcement..Lightwave Logic Commences Production of Prototype Photonic Chip.

“The industry has been waiting for a commercially viable electro-optic polymer for more than two decades; many companies have made claims and have not been able to deliver,” said Hal Bennett, CEO of Lightwave Logic. “We are very excited. This is the final step in the development process. The marriage of the chromophore and the spacer system is now complete and the combined material has been delivered to our partner, Photon-X, who will fabricate a prototype polymer optical modulator and measure its technical properties. We are still on schedule to demonstrate this prototype early next quarter. It is this demonstration that will move us into the commercialization phase and to the next stage in conversations with potential customers and partners. Potential customers have told me in no uncertain terms that they are very excited about our polymer, and eagerly anticipate our demonstration.”.

So not really a start-up but the speeds they have achieved are amazing by today’s standards.

So why have they not being taken up by industry today? There is a ton of research on electro-optic polymers. I think the biggest single problem is aging. And one would  expect elevated levels of plastic deformation over time at operating temperatures and the structural changes that would be expected to  occur over long periods of time when exposed to light.

 Thermal stability has always been the biggy. The ability to operate at very high speed and low power should  be driving industry adoption but it appears not to be happening.