The awards were announced at a dinner on 6th May in Sydney. CRC researchers from the ANU, and the University of Sydney have established an experimental plant at the University of NSW to manufacture these planar waveguide devices. The complexity of optical fibre-based systems has made them expensive and this, in turn, has slowed the penetration of optics into the communications market.
Optical circuitry is currently far more immature than electronic integrated circuits.
This limits the functions that can be performed within the optical domain. If you can control the optical domain with electronics you can achieve a full range of functions.