Integrated electrically switchable gratings for optical interconnects

Abstract

We demonstrate the first integration of polymer waveguides and electrically switchable gratings in a single substrate for the application of optical interconnect. The electrically switchable gratings are used to couple optical signals from VCSEL to waveguide or from waveguide to photodetector. This switchable coupling feature provides a promising solution to facilitate dynamically reconfigurable on-chip optical interconnect architecture for intrachip and chip-to-chip data communication.