Recent Progress in Polymer Based Photonic Devices (original) (raw)
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Polymer Waveguide Devices: Status and Trends
With all-optical communication systems penetrating into metro and access networks, the cost reduction becomes now the single important issue for deployment of WDM networks to such areas. Due to different functionalities, ease of fabrication, cost-effectiveness, and compatibility with other materials, polymers are emerging as a new material platform for waveguide and integrated-optical devices. In this paper, the status and the trends of polymeric waveguide materials and different waveguide and integrated-optical devices for optical communications will be reviewed.
Novel, Fast and Flexible Methods for Fabrication of Polymer-based Optical Waveguides
2005
In this work we demonstrate how to utilize conventional polymer fabrication methods to produce optical waveguides integrated into microsystems entirely fabricated in polymers. Instead of using expensive and time consuming cleanroom processes, our principles allow easy implementation into existing designs, compatibility to mass fabrication techniques, and the possibility of quickly changing the design. The waveguides produced with these methods show propagation losses as low as 1 dB/cm over a wide wavelength range from 850 nm down to 400 nm.
Advances in polymer integrated optics
IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, 2000
We report on advances in polymeric waveguide technologies developed worldwide for the telecom and datacom markets, and we describe in detail one such technology developed at AlliedSignal. Optical polymers are versatile materials that can be readily formed into planar single-mode, multimode, and microoptical waveguide structures ranging in dimensions from under a micrometer to several hundred micrometers. These materials can be thermoplastics, thermosets, or photopolymers, and the starting formulations are typically either polymers or oligomers in solution or liquid monomers. Transmission losses in polymers can be minimized, typically by halogenation, with state-of-the-art loss values being about 0.01 dB/cm at 840 nm and about 0.1 dB/cm at 1550 nm. A number of polymers have been shown to exhibit excellent environmental stability and have demonstrated capability in a variety of demanding applications. Waveguides can be formed by direct photolithography, reactive ion etching, laser ablation, molding, or embossing. Well-developed adhesion schemes permit the use of polymers on a wide range of rigid and flexible substrates. Integrated optical devices fabricated to date include numerous passive and active elements that achieve a variety of coupling, routing, filtering, and switching functions.
A polymer-based platform technology for integrated photonics
Linear and Nonlinear Optics of Organic Materials IV, 2004
Polymers have been studied as an alternate material to silica for optical interconnects and photonic devices for the last decade. In this paper we review the work performed at GE Global Research in the area of polymer based material systems for photonic applications. A description of the application of the technology to several different areas is presented. Some of these application areas include optical interconnects, optoelectronic integration and electro-optical devices using polymer material systems. The overall effort includes areas of research from the basic chemistry of polymer optical materials to the development of photonic components. Specifically the use of polymer materials as a platform technology for hybrid integration in the development of multi-functional sub systems is reviewed.
2016
The impact of photonics in telecommunications is indisputably massive; however it relies on efficient cost reduction which is in turn only possible if significant cost savings are made at all steps in the development of the photonic device from the material to packaging. The PHOTOPOLIS consortium has identified polymer technology as the ideal solution for producing low-cost devices. The paper aims to discuss the status of polymer photonic components and subsystems able to generate, transmit and manage optical information in a cost effective manner.
Polymer photonic technologies for optical communications
International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks, 2013
The impact of photonics in telecommunications is indisputably massive; however it relies on efficient cost reduction which is in turn only possible if significant cost savings are made at all steps in the development of the photonic device from the material to packaging. The PHOTOPOLIS consortium has identified polymer technology as the ideal solution for producing low-cost devices. The paper aims to discuss the status of polymer photonic components and subsystems able to generate, transmit and manage optical information in a cost effective manner.
Fabrication of Polymeric Multimode Waveguides and
2002
Large cross section multimode waveguides have been realized in SU-8 using selective polymerization. SU-8 is a negative photoresist, which has shown good optical properties and it is mechanically and chemically stable. The fabricated waveguides have very smooth sidewalls and exhibit low optical losses. The fabrication method is simple and potentially very cost effective. N x N and 1 x N multimode power splitters have been realized using this fabrication technology.
All-optical polymer waveguide devices
Materials and Devices for Optical and Wireless Communications, 2002
We fabricated all-optical polymer devices such as Mach-Zehnder modulator and 1x2 switch using a polymer doped with photoresponsive dyes. The refractive index change of the photoresponsive dyes by irradiation of light was utilized to fabricate switching and modulation devices. All-optical Mach-Zehnder modulator and switch are demonstrated which are composed of a polymer waveguide doped with the dyes in the core and a thick light blocking metal layer on the waveguide. The metal layer was opened on one arm of the Mach-Zehnder modulator and 1x2 Y-branch switch, so that only one arm could be irradiated by control light, thus allowing a changing of refractive index. The optical modulator and switch exhibited an extinction ratio of about -12 dB and a crosstalk of -14 dB at a wavelength of 1 .55 im respectively. A simple kinetic model developed to delineate the refractive index change in the dye doped polymer film was applied to predict the evolution of the modulation characteristics. We have also fabricated polymeric wavelength filters with Bragg grating. The surface relief grating was formed using an azobenzene polymer film and used as an etch mask to transfer the pattern to polymer waveguides by reactive ion etching (RIE). The grating period was 5OO nm and the depth was 3O nm with 10-mm-long grating length. A crosstalk of -20 dB at the Bragg wavelength and the 3-dB transmission bandwidth of 0.2 nm were obtained from the device.
Fabrication of all-polymer freestanding waveguides
Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 2003
Optical waveguides are used in a wide range of scientific and technological applications. In this paper we focus on the application of waveguides as biosensors with the specific aim of implementing a novel waveguide design for a sensor with improved sensitivity to sub-micron as well as micron-scale analyte entities. The realization of this goal requires ways of fabricating freely suspended polymer thin films of well-defined thickness and having a nanometer scale deep optical grating in their surface. We demonstrate several easy pathways for making such a waveguide module through the combination of advanced polymer handling methodologies based on soft lithography approaches. The resulting waveguide modules are capable of guiding light coupled into the waveguide through its integrated grating coupler. We believe that the presented fabrication methodologies may be of general utility for microfabrication in polymers and that the improved waveguide structures may also find wider use in integrated optics.