Optical Interconnect: Fully Embedded Etched Passive And Active Polyimide Waveguides And Devices

Abstract

Electro-optic polymers are of great interest for inserting photonic elements into electronic systems. Recently much progress has been made in both materials and processing. These polymers must have low optical loss, high mechanical integrity, low processing cost, and high temperature stability. In the first part of our talk, we present our work to produce etched single mode buried channel waveguides in an all polymide system. We have chosen polyimide because of its high temperature stability. Optical losses and waveguide characteristics are described as a function of waveguide width and index of refraction difference between core and cladding.Mach Zehnder modulators fabricated using a DCM-polyrnide core are also described. The waveguide cores are etched and fully embedded in a polyimide cladding. The active arms of the modulator are poled using parallel plate poling. The electro-optic properties of the Mach Zehnder are described operating at 830nni. Photobleached DCM waveguides are also describe. A new high temperature chromophore is presented.

Processible and Thermally Stable Heterocyclic Polymers for Second-Order Nonlinear Optical Studies

“…As heterocyclic polymers, including polyimides, are typically high-T g polymers with excellent thermal stability, they are very good candidates for use in second-order nonlinear optical materials. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Although high T g is desired for second-order nonlinear optical materials to have stable NLO properties at high temperatures, it often results in unsatisfactory processibility and low poling efficiency. For example, inconvenient solvents, such as DMSO, and very high poling temperatures are required for the processing of many polyimide type NLO materials.…”

“…Heterocyclic polymers are those polymers with cyclic components in which at least one of the ring members is a heteroatom. As heterocyclic polymers, including polyimides, are typically high- T g polymers with excellent thermal stability, they are very good candidates for use in second-order nonlinear optical materials. − …”