Since lasers were first realized in 1960, significant amounts of resources have been invested in order to develop opto-electronics technologies. After about 30 years of such efforts, the opto-electronics industry has grown to an important partner of micro-electronics in supporting our society to advance into an information-intensive society. A technological overview on opto-electronics, including a variety of applications with respect to communication, switching, information processing and other uses, as well as device technology, is described.
