Hybrid opto-electric integrated devices on polymer platform
Hybrid integration technology using cheaper material platforms is considered to be a powerful solution for optical devices. Among them, the polymer planar-lightwave circuit (PLC) technology is regarded attractive; because polymer offers the potential of fairly simple and low-cost fabrication, high freedom of design, yield optimization and relative cost-efficiency, while other active and passive devices can be integrated on the polymer PLC platform. In this paper, we present exemplary polymer waveguide devices such as arrayed waveguide grating (AWG), and optical 90° hybrid realized with 2 paired 2×2 multi-mode interferometers (MMI). Typical characteristics of these devices are given, and integration concepts of these devices with other optical elements, e.g. a half wave plate, photodiodes, are also demonstrated. Last but not least, we demonstrate the end-fire coupling between a curved striped distributed feedback (DFB) laser and the polymer PLC.