Polymer waveguides and thermo-optical switches for an optical true time delay phased array antenna

Abstract

The design and fabrication of a polymer optical waveguide based true time delay (TTD) device is described. Optimization of the fabrication process decreased the waveguide propagation loss from more than 1.55 dB/cm to 0.38 dB/cm at a wavelength of 1.55um. Waveguide bend loss structures were fabricated and measurement results were compared to simulations. A bend radius of 3 mm provides low insertion loss and small device size. 2x2 thermo-optic TIR switches were fabricated with insertion losses of 2.8 dB. A 4-bit TTD device for use with a 4x4 sub-array of a 10GHz phased array antenna was calculated to have an insertion loss of 23.88 dB.