Design, Fabrication and Properties of Rib Poly(methylmethacrylimide) Optical Waveguides

We report about design, fabrication and properties of the polymer optical waveguides deposited on silica-on-silicon substrate. The design of the waveguides is based on a concept that geometric dimensions of the single mode polymer waveguide are determined by geometrical parameters of the silica layer. The design of the waveguides was schemed for 650 nm, 850 nm, 1310 nm and 1550 nm wavelength. The design of the presented planar waveguides was realized on the bases of modified dispersion equation while the ridge waveguides design was proposed following the Fischbeck concept. Both designs were refined applying RSoft software using beam propagation method. Proposed shapes of the waveguides were etched by standard photolithography process into the silica layers and polymer waveguide layers were subsequently deposited into the treated substrate by spin coating. Poly(methylmethacrylimide) was used as the waveguide core material and polymethylmethacrylate was used as a cover protection layer. Propagation optical loss measurements were done by using the cut-back method and the best samples had optical losses lower than 0.6 dB/cm at 650 nm, 1310 nm and 1550 nm