All-polymer arrayed waveguide grating multiplexer based on commercial low-loss polymer waveguide materials

With optical communication systems penetrating into metro and access networks, the cost reduction becomes the single important issue for deployment of WDM networks to such areas. In contrast to long-haul systems, cost reduction of components manufacture and maintenance is of vital importance. Besides the cost issue, polymers possess intrinsically attractive material properties (high thermo-optic (TO) coefficient, low thermal conductivity) leading to wide applications where TO functionality, thermal tunability, low power consumption, and temperature compensation are required. Devices such as TO switches, variable optical attenuators (VOAs), athermal and tunable arrayed-waveguide gratings (AWGs) have been widely investigated. Being recogn ised for their different functionalities, ease of fabrication, cost-effectiveness, and compatibility with other material systems, polymers as a platform technology for waveguide and integrated-optical devices are gaining more and more commercial acceptance. 8x8 AWG wavelength routers with = 200GHz at = 1.55µm were fabricated at Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institut, using low-loss UV-curable polymers on different substrate materials. The polymer waveguide materials are synthesised by Zen Photonics Co., Ltd., in South Korea and are commercial available. The refractive index difference between the core and cladding layers can be tuned in a wide range. In this study, an index contrast of n = 0.011 was chosen. The waveguide loss amounts to 0.5 dB/cm at 1.55 m wavelength, and the measured crosstalk of the AWG is well below -30 dB. The insertion loss of the AWG was found to be in between 4.5dB for the centre ports and 6dB for the edge ports. The polarization and the temperature behaviours of the polymer AWGs were investigated. It was found that these behaviours are depended on the physical parameters of waveguide and substrate materials. By choosing proper combination of the material parameters, polymer-based AWGs with required temperature and/or polarization behaviour can be designed and fabricated. Details will be described in the manuscript and will be presented at the conference.