Low-loss interconnection between electro-optic and passive polymer waveguides for planar lightwave circuits

Abstract

A simple low‐loss interconnection structure between electro‐optic (EO) and passive polymer waveguides is demonstrated. This easy‐to‐fabricate structure is not subject to loss induced by misalignment. Both a conventional structure and an inverted ridge‐waveguide structure are demonstrated. The structure is suitable for planar lightwave circuit (PLC) applications with excess losses for the fabricated interconnections of around 0.1 dB. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 48: 415–418, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.21367

Hybrid integrated electrooptic polymeric digital optical switches (DOS's) with lower loss

“…The ideal case is APC-DH6 is removed and SU-8 is just revealed. Our simulation and experiment results show that the tolerance is around 0.2pim on this etching process [7]. This means a very thin (less than 0.2pm) layer of APC-DH6 can be left on the top of SU-8 or SU-8 film can be overetched a little, less than 0.2pim, without a significant effect on the transmission properties of the interconnection.…”

“…The optical loss of SU-8 is about 0.5dB/cm at 1.3ptm and it is known to have very good processibility and mechanical properties. As shown in [7], the average excess loss of the fabricated waveguide interconnections is around 0.1 dB.…”

“…The basic structure of waveguide interconnection is shown in [7]. Two kinds of core materials (passive and active) are placed side by side on the same lower cladding.…”

“…There is no misalignment-induced loss in this structure and this design is very suitable for the applications such as planar lightwave circuits (PLCs). The transmission properties of such interconnection were studied by both simulations and experiments in [7]. For inverted ridge waveguide[8] used in our device, the ridge width and height are 4ptm and 0.5-0.8pim respectively.…”

Optical signal processor using electro-optic polymer waveguides

“…If the index of the passive material is similar to the active material, standard butt-coupling is also promising. 31 Furthermore, recently development of polymers with very high electro-optic r 33 coefficients of more than 300 pm/V have been investigated. The r 33 coefficient of 300 pm/V is more than a factor of 10 larger than the one in this work.…”