Integration of Optical Waveguide Array and Multilayer Substrate Integrated Waveguide for Electrooptical Modulator

Integration of an optical waveguide array using four waveguides in a Mach-Zehnder (MZ) structure and a two-layer low-loss substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) structure is presented to propose a new class of electrooptical phase modulators. In the proposed SIW modulator, synthesized rectangular waveguide in planar form is used as “electrodes” to guide millimeter-wave signals instead of conventional coplanar waveguide (CPW) for an electrooptical modulator, thus providing low-loss non-TEM mode propagation. In this study, two layers of a lithium niobate (LiNbO₃) substrate for creating a high field interaction between the millimeter-wave and optical signals are considered and studied. Fabrication of the proposed structure by titanium diffusion in an LiNbO₃ substrate as the optical waveguides and laser micromachining of the SIW via-holes has been done. The validation of our simulated results is also performed by the measurement of CPW-to-SIW transitions in the LiNbO₃ substrate. Optical loss of 0.8 dB/cm at the wavelength of 1550 nm is obtained for an MZ structure using an optical waveguide array consisting of four waveguiding channels. In addition, it is shown that 5-GHz bandwidth over a 60-GHz operating frequency range can easily be obtained for the proposed modulator.