Thermo-optically tuned cascaded polymer waveguide taps

Polymer thermo-optic-waveguide taps have a potential application as light routers for guided-wave optical interconnects involving cascaded fanouts. The taps can guide light from an optical bus bar and direct it into other devices in a switching/modulation network. Thermo-optic waveguide taps are designed and fabricated on silicon wafers using standard very large-scale integrated fabrication techniques. Coupling of light into an adjacent waveguide tap is observed to increase by 12.3% from 38.7% to 51.0% with the application of 34 mW of power. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)03728-6].