Bottom-metal-printed thermo-optic waveguide switches based on low-loss fluorinated polycarbonate materials.

In this work, thermo-optic (TO) waveguide switches are designed and fabricated based on the bottom-metal-printed technique. Low-loss fluorinated polycarbonate (AF-Z-PC MA) and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) are used as core and cladding materials, respectively. The thermal stability and optical absorption characteristics of AF-Z-PC MA are analyzed. The optical and thermal field distributions of the TO switch are simulated. The insertion loss and extinction ratio of the device are found to be 4.5 dB and 19.8 dB, respectively, at a wavelength of 1550 nm. The on-off time of the switching chip is 80 µs. The electrical power consumption is approximately 8.8 mW. The proposed low-loss fluorinated polymer TO waveguide switch realized by bottom-metal-printed fabrication technology is suitable for large-scale integrated photonic circuit systems.

Metal-printing polymer waveguide thermo-optic switches compatible with 650 and 532 nm visible signal wavelengths for plastic optical fiber systems.

In this work, thermo-optic (TO) waveguide switches for 650 and 532 nm visible wavelengths are designed and fabricated by the metal-printing technique based on poly (methyl methacrylate-glycidyl methacrylate) [P(MMA-GMA)] material. The optical characteristics and thermal stability of the P(MMA-GMA) material are analyzed. Optical transmission modes in the core waveguide for different visible wavelengths are simulated, and the thermal field distribution from the self-heating electrode structure is calculated, respectively. The structural parameters of the devices compatible with 650 and 532 nm visible wavelengths are designed optimally. For 650 and 532 nm signal wavelengths, the insertion loss of the actual TO switch fabricated is less than 3.2 dB, and the response time of the device is about 367.4 µs at 100 Hz square wave electrical signals. The driving electrical power of the device for the 650 nm signal wavelength is 15.2 mW and 14.0 mW for the 532 nm signal wavelength, respectively. The extinction ratio of the visible TO switch for 650 nm is 15.1 dB and 18.5 dB for 532 nm, respectively. The technique is suitable for realizing plastic optical fiber system applications.

Fluorinated photopolymer cascaded MMI-based integrated optical waveguide switching matrix with encoding functions.

In this work, thermo-optic tunable 4 × 4 cascaded multimode interference based integrated optical waveguide switching matrices are designed and fabricated using photopolymer lightwave circuits. The materials of the waveguide core and cladding are fluorinated epoxy-terminated copolycarbonate and polymethylmethacrylate, respectively. The driving power that controls matrices for binary encoding of different optical switching states are simulated and analyzed. The measured insertion loss of the actual chip is < 7.1 dB and the maximum crosstalk in adjacent channels is <-30 dB. The switching time is approximately 220 µs and the extinction ratio is obtained as 21.5 dB. This flexible encoding technique can be applied for achieving optical code-division multiple-access network coders.

Fluorinated photopolymer waveguide thermo-optic switches with loss-compensation function based on erbium-containing cladding structure.

In this work, a novel polymer thermo-optic switch with loss compensation function is successfully designed and fabricated by direct UV-writing technology. The waveguide core and cladding layer material of the switch are based on the low-loss fluorinated photopolymer and erbium-containing gain copolymer. The absorption loss characteristics and thermal stabilities of the core and cladding materials are studied. The optimal optical field distribution for loss-compensation structures is analyzed by modifying refractive index difference between the core and cladding. The thermo-optic modulation effect of the optical signal transmission for the device is simulated. The insertion loss of the switch device is about 6 dB. The switching rise and fall time are 396.2 µs and 461.2 µs applied by 500 Hz square-wave voltage, respectively. The switching power is 6.5 mW, the extinction ratio of the switch is about 14 dB. The loss-compensation value of the entire chip is obtained as 1.9 dB at 1530 nm wavelength. The flexible loss-compensation multi-functional waveguide switch is appropriate for incorporation in large-scale opti-electronic integrated circuits.