POLYMER ELECTROOPTIC WAVE-GUIDE FABRICATION

Various methods for the fabrication of etched waveguide structures, environmentally stable electrooptic modulators and the integration of polymer waveguides with silicon circuitry is discussed. Dry etching of the active polymer layer by reactive ion etching was used to fabricate millimeter-wave modulators (dc-60 GHz) with long term stability. Further improvement in etch quality was achieved by employing the novel etch method of electron cyclotron resonance etching. Our polymer modulator was tested in a community access television optical-fiber link demonstration and general optical power handling requirements of such devices are outlined. We also discuss the fabrication of polymer waveguides on planarized silicon VLSI circuits. Multiple fiber attachment using v-grooves etched in Si/SiO2 substrate is demonstrated.