Abstract
Polymers are attractive to realize integrated circuits specially because they are very simple to process and are promising for low cost devices. Moreover, beside low cost technology, the large possible range of refractive index, could lead to large scale of integration, lowering the fabrication costs. In some cases, it could be an alternative solution to semiconductor or inorganic dielectric technologies. With usual UV photolithography technology, this work shows that it is possible to perform small guides in order to provide relatively high circuit densification. The refractive index contrast, between optical core and cladding, can be as high as 0.07 instead of 0.02 for the higher contrast in silica Ge doped waveguides. Recently, this contrast has been increased to 0.11 at the wavelength of 1550nm. These materials make possible the patterning of guides having radius of curvature smaller than 200μm. Such curvatures open the way to functions based on microrings that potentially lead to compact wavelength multiplexers. With the view to control the fabrication of polymer waveguides, some features of the process are reported here. For example, shortcomings such as unsuitable film worm aspects are described and solutions are given with requirements assigned to rough materials. Mechanical and thermal properties of polymers have to be adjusted to withstand integrated circuit processing. This paper also presents results concerning the realization of integrated passive microring resonators with this technology.
