Filtering characteristics of hybrid integrated polymer and compound semiconductor waveguides

This paper reports a study on a compact filter fabricated using hybrid integration of compound semiconductors and polymers. A GaAs epilayer is glued onto a polymer channel waveguide forming a highly asymmetrical directional coupler. This approach results in a narrow band filter due to very different dispersion characteristics of the compound semiconductor and the polymer materials. Furthermore, fiber coupling loss has been significantly reduced, since the input and output coupling is done through the polymer waveguide. Filtering characteristics can be engineered by changing the thickness and the length of the semiconductor epilayer. This can be done precisely using etch stop layers and noncritical lithography. The spectral response of such a filter can also be tuned electronically either using the electro-optic properties of the compound semiconductor or the thermo-optic properties of the polymer.