Polymer-Based Devices for Optical Communications

Abstract

Polymers are emerging as new alternative materials for optical communication devices. We developed two types of polymer-based devices for optical communications. One type is for ultra high-speed signal processing that uses nonlinear optical (NLO) polymers in such devices as electro -optic (EO) Mach-Zëhnder (MZ) modulators and EO 2×2 switches. The other is for WDM optical communications that use low-loss optical polymers in such devices as 1×2, 2×2, 4-arrayed 2×2 digital optical switches (DOSs) and 16×16 arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) routers. For these devices, we synthesized a polyetherimide-disperse red 1 (PEI-DR1) side chain NLO polymer and a low-loss optical polymer known as fluorinated polyaryleneethers (FPAE). This paper presents the details of our development of these polymeric photonic devices considering all aspects from materials to packaging.