Ultracompact Polymer Waveguide Devices for WDM Application

A fabrication process for PFCB waveguide air-trench bends on silicon substrate with electron beam lithography (EBL) and autoalignment has been developed and a high efficiency air-trench bend (97.2% for TE polarization and 96.2% for TM polarization) has been demonstrated. The simulation predicts an optical efficiency of 98.5% for TE and 98.2% for TM when the Goos Hanchen shift is properly accounted for. We have adapted this process to making air trench bends in PFCB waveguides on polyimide substrates. Compared to silicon substrates, the polyimide substrates have the advantage of less coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch with PFCB films, which improves fabrication repeatability and yield. Using air-trench bends, an ultracompact 8 x 8 arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) demultiplexer (200 GHz) for WDM has been designed and fabricated on a polyimide substrate. Compared to a conventional AWG in the same material system, the air-trench bend AWG shrinks the required chip area by a factor of 20. The decreased size is a factor in reducing the measured thermal shift to -0.012 nm/C and decreasing the polarization-dependent wavelength shift to 1.3 nm.

Yongbin Lin is a research scientist in the Nano and Micro Device Center (NMDC) at University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). Dr. Lin earned a BS in Photosensitive Chemistry from East China University of Science and Technology, the MS in Applied Optics from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and the PhD in Optical Science and Engineering (2007) from UAH. His research interests lie in planar lightwave circuit integration using air-trench bends and splitters, and waveguide chemical and bio sensors.