Wide tunable thermo-optical filters with polymer micro-ring resonators

conference 6996 " Silicon Photonics and Photonic Integrated Circuits ", poster session, [6996-63], http://spie.org/x24034.xmlInternational audiencePolymers are increasingly attractive for the creation of optical integrated circuits particularly owing to a high thermo-optical coefficient (-10-4 °C-1) which allows to design optical functions tunable according to temperature. For example, tunable filters or multiplexers are attractive in telecom applications for bringing broadband services to subscribers. Moreover, the large available range of refractive index, leads to large scale of integration, lowering the fabrication costs and could be an alternative solution to semiconductor or inorganic dielectric technologies. In this work, optical functions were created using standard photolithography and Reactive Ion Etching (RIE). Photolithography was used with particular conditions to improve pattern resolution. Firstly, the details of making optical polymer waveguides and wavelength micro-ring based filters are given. Optical loss measurements of waveguides and optical characterisation of micro-ring resonators are also shown for which the results are in agreement with the modelling. Secondly, the same micro-ring resonators were observed with the temperature change and we noticed that the variation of resonance wavelength is about 0.2 nm.°C-1. This is just what is needed for the creation of tunable filters or multiplexers without electrical high power, considering the very small size of the component