Abstract
Waveguide (WG) photonic-bridge taper modules are designed for symmetric planar coupling between silicon WGs and single-mode fibers (SMFs) to minimize photonic chip and packaging footprint requirements with improving broadband functionality. Micromachined fabrication and evaluation of polymer WG tapers utilizing high-resolution focused ion beam (FIB) milling is performed and presented. Polymer etch rates utilizing the FIB and optimal methods for milling polymer tapers are identified for three-dimensional patterning. Polymer WG tapers with low sidewall roughness are manufactured utilizing FIB milling and optically tested for fabrication loss. FIB platforms utilize a focused beam of ions (Ga+) to etch submicron patterns into substrates. Fabricating low-loss polymer WG taper prototypes with the FIB before moving on to mass-production techniques provides theoretical understanding of the polymer taper and its feasibility for connectorization devices between silicon WGs and SMFs.
Highlights
Direct-light coupling into and out of integrated silicon (Si) photonic devices can be performed using low-attenuation (0.2 dB∕km)[1] silica-based single-mode fibers (SMFs)
Photonic-bridge modules minimize optical coupling loss, allow for system flexibility in device connectorization, and eliminate expenses required for conducting end-face treatments on both Si WGs and SMFs.[3]
Prototyping low-loss tapers with high resolution was performed utilizing the focused ion beam (FIB) to mill out tapers at the end of premanufactured polymer WGs
Summary
Direct-light coupling into and out of integrated silicon (Si) photonic devices can be performed using low-attenuation (0.2 dB∕km)[1] silica-based single-mode fibers (SMFs). Direct coupling between Si waveguides (WGs; ∼300 nm, NA > 3.0) and SMFs (∼8 μm, NA < 0.15) results in high coupling loss (ΓC 1⁄4 18.8 dB).[2] Photonic-bridge modules minimize optical coupling loss, allow for system flexibility in device connectorization, and eliminate expenses required for conducting end-face treatments on both Si WGs and SMFs.[3]. A photonic-bridge module utilizing a WG taper design shown in Fig. 1 is manufactured using low-loss polymer materials on a metallic-coated substrate. Polymer WG materials exhibit low absorption loss and can be molded through a variety of cost-effective manufacturing techniques, including soft-imprint lithography.[4] Initial taper prototypes fabricated using photolithography demonstrated high loss due to optical scattering from sidewall roughness of [>25 nm RMS (root-mean-squared)].
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