Thermo-optic waveguide gate switch arrays based
on direct UV-written highly fluorinated
low-loss photopolymer
Xiaoyan Niu,
1
Yang Zheng,
1
Yunlong Gu,
1
Changming Chen,
1,
* Zhenzhen Cai,
2
Zuosen Shi,
2
Fei Wang,
1
Xiaoqiang Sun,
1
Zhanchen Cui,
2
and Daming Zhang
1
1
State Key Laboratory on Integrated Optoelectronics, College of Electronic Science and Engineering,
Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China
2
Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China
*Corresponding author: chencm@jlu.edu.cn
Received 11 June 2014; revised 2 September 2014; accepted 2 September 2014;
posted 3 September 2014 (Doc. ID 213896); published 2 October 2014
Novel thermo-optic waveguide gate switch arrays were designed and fabricated based on the direct UV-
written technique. Highly fluorinated low-loss photopolymers and organic–inorganic grafting materials
were used as the waveguide core and cladding, respectively. The low absorption loss characteristics and
excellent thermal stabilities of the core and cladding materials were obtained. The rectangular wave-
guides and arrayed electrode heaters have been theoretically designed and numerically simulated to
realize single-mode transmission. The propagation loss of a 4-μm-wide straight waveguide was measured
as 0.15 dB∕cm. The insertion loss of the device was directly measured to be about 5.5 dB. The rise and fall
times of the device applied 100 Hz square-wave voltage were obtained as 1.068 and 1.245 ms, respec-
tively. The switching power was about 9.2 mW, and the extinction ratio was 17.8 dB. The low-loss inte-
grated switch arrays are suitable for realizing large-scale photonic integrated circuits. © 2014 Optical
Society of America
OCIS codes: (130.4815) Optical switching devices; (160.5335) Photosensitive materials; (230.3120)
Integrated optics devices; (130.5460) Polymer waveguides.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/AO.53.006698
1. Introduction
Optical switches as the key component of realizing
channel selection and conversion function in optical
transmission network, have been widely used on the
optical link layer, such as in optical cross connect
(OXC), optical add–drop multiplexer (OADM), opti-
cal network monitoring, and on-chip optical intercon-
nection [
1–5]. With the increasing demands for low
cost and high performance of the optical chips, the
photonic integrated circuits (PICs)-based monolithic
integrated optica l devices have gradually drawn ex-
tensive attention in recent years [
6–8]. Large-scale
switch arrays based on the photo nic integration tech-
nique are the critical devices for implementation
of OXC and OADM between the optical network
nodes [
9].
Optical switches have been developed rapidly in
the past few years [
10–12], in which the thermo-optic
(TO) waveguide switches utilizing photopolymer ma-
terials are extraordinarily attractive, on account of
its low cost, lower power consumption, and simple
preparation tech nique [
12–17]. The bis-phenol-A no-
volac resin (SU-8) as a negative near-ultraviolet pho-
toresist has been used intensively to fabricate kinds
of optical waveguide devices since the competitive
advantages it took as reported in the literature
[
18–20]. The good stability, excellent mechanical
properties, and biocompatibility of SU-8 have made
1559-128X/14/296698-08$15.00/0
© 2014 Optical Society of America
6698 APPLIED OPTICS / Vol. 53, No. 29 / 10 October 2014
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