We have designed and fabricated digital thermo-optic switches using low-loss photocuring fluoroacrylate polymers [1]. We have used both modeling and experimental design-rule studies to elucidate the contributions to loss and crosstalk of the various important building blocks that comprise a Y-branch digital optical switch (YDOS). We present herein the results of these studies as well as the achieved performance for 1x2, 2x2 and 4x4 switches fabricated with these designs. Average chip-level insertion loss values for the three designs were 1.1, 1.8, and 2.8 dB, respectively, for 1550-nm illumination. Switching times in every case were below 3 ms. Polarization dependent loss was less than 0.1 dB at 1550 nm. Fully packaged permanently pigtailed versions of the 2x2 and 4x4 switches were also constructed. For these packaged devices, average insertion losses of 2.0 and 3.3 dB were achieved, and crosstalk was maintained at a value less than -45 dB.

Date Published: 13 June 2002
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 4642, Organic Photonic Materials and Devices IV, (13 June 2002); doi: 10.1117/12.470446

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4642:
Organic Photonic Materials and Devices IV
Bernard Kippelen; Donal D. C. Bradley, Editor(s)