Synthesis, Processing and characterization of new high-performance polymers for use in integrated optics

For long range transmissions of high amounts of data the glass fiber is the medium of choice. For an optical network many different connection devices are needed, such as multiplexers, splitters, attenuators etc. Typically such waveguide-based devices are produced using silica technology which involve cost intensive multi-step processes. In contrast to the inorganic waveguides polymer technology provides a lot of advantages, such as lower production costs, temperature insensitive devices and switches with low switching power. The authors have been working several years on the development of polymers for optical application. The current work is focussed on three material systems, polycyanurate ester resins, polyacrylates and triazine containing polymers. This paper focusses on the triazine containing polymers and the reduction of their birefringence via adjusting the CTE of the substrate