High bandwidth polymer modulators

Nonlinear electrooptic polymer materials have the advantages of fast response and low dispersion. Traveling wave devices made from these polymer materials have an intrinsic higher bandwidth compared with competing material systems. We reported earlier the demonstration of 60 GHz polymer electrooptic modulators, and have now extended this development to 94 GHz devices. Microwave circuit performance is the limiting factor in extending the frequency response of these devices. The resistive loss of the electrodes becomes higher as the frequency increases. Using optimized device parameters and improved processing techniques, we have designed and fabricated two types of improved electrodes which have low losses at high frequency. Our coplanar strips configuration requires in-plane poling while our new microstrip line electrode works with our standard corona poling process.