Fabrication method for passive alignment in polymer PLCs with U-grooves

Author

Park, S. ; Jong-Moo Lee ; Sang Choon Ko

Author_Institution

Basic Res. Lab., Electron. & Telecommun. Res. Inst., Daejon, South Korea

Volume

17

Issue

7

fYear

2005

fDate

7/1/2005 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1444

Lastpage

1446

Abstract

A method is developed to enhance fabrication tolerance for the passive alignment of polymer waveguides to optical fibers in polymer-based planar lightwave circuit (PLC) devices. For the passive alignment, the waveguides and U-grooves, into which the optical fibers are set, are fabricated on a substrate. In order to eliminate lateral misalignment between the centers of the waveguides and U-grooves due to the steps of photolithography, an optical axis alignment is achieved in one photomask. Reduced-cladding single-mode fibers with an 80-μm diameter are used to reduce vertical misalignment. PLCs based on polymers were implemented on a 4-in Si wafer using the method, and excessive losses of less than 0.4 dB were obtained.

Keywords

integrated optics; masks; optical fabrication; optical fibre losses; optical polymers; optical waveguides; photolithography; 4 in; 80 mum; Si wafer; U-grooves; fabrication tolerance; optical axis alignment; optical fabrication; optical fibers; passive alignment; photolithography; photomask; planar lightwave circuit devices; polymer PLC; polymer waveguides; reduced-cladding fibers; single-mode fibers; Circuits; Lithography; Optical device fabrication; Optical fibers; Optical losses; Optical planar waveguides; Optical polymers; Optical waveguides; Planar waveguides; Programmable control; Optical platform; passive alignment; polymer optical module; polymer planar lightwave circuit (PLC);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2005.848287

Filename

1453638