Highly flexible polymeric optical waveguide for out-of-plane optical interconnects

Area of Science:

• Optoelectronics
• Materials Science
• Photonics

Background:

• Flexible substrates are crucial for advanced optical interconnects.
• Polymeric optical waveguides offer potential for miniaturized optical systems.
• Out-of-plane optical interconnects require robust waveguide designs capable of bending.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the high-speed optical performance of a polymeric optical waveguide array with embedded micro-mirrors on a flexible substrate.
• To evaluate the impact of bending radius on insertion loss and signal integrity.
• To assess the suitability of these devices for out-of-plane optical interconnects.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a polymeric optical waveguide array with embedded 45-degree micro-mirrors on a flexible substrate.
• Optical testing of the waveguide array under varying bending curvatures (61 mm to 5 mm radius).
• Measurement of insertion loss for single-mode fiber (SMF) and multi-mode fiber (MMF) coupling.
• Analysis of eye-diagrams, Q factor, and bit error rate (BER) at 10 Gbps.

Main Results:

• Average insertion loss increased from 3.4 dB to 7.7 dB (SMF) and 5.5 dB to 7.9 dB (MMF) as bending radius decreased.
• Signal quality degraded with bending; Q factor decreased from 8.0 to 6.1.
• Bit error rate (BER) increased from 10(-16) to 10(-10) at 10 Gbps under tested bending conditions.

Conclusions:

• The performance of polymeric optical waveguide arrays with embedded micro-mirrors is sensitive to bending.
• Reduced bending radii significantly increase insertion loss and degrade signal integrity (BER).
• Further optimization is needed to enhance the robustness of these flexible optical interconnects for practical applications.