Dry-film polymer waveguide for silicon photonics chip packaging

Area of Science:

• Photonics
• Materials Science
• Electrical Engineering

Background:

• Silicon photonics is crucial for high-speed optical communication.
• Efficient chip packaging is essential for integrating photonic components.
• Traditional packaging methods face challenges in performance and scalability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a polymer waveguide fabricated using a dry film process for silicon photonics chip packaging.
• To evaluate the performance of the polymer waveguide in terms of data rate and signal integrity.
• To assess the coupling efficiency and alignment tolerances for integration with single-mode fibers.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of polymer waveguides using a dry film process.
• Characterization of waveguide core dimensions (8 μm × 11.5 μm).
• Testing signal transmission at data rates up to 25 Gbps.
• Measurement of coupling losses to single-mode fiber (SMF).
• Analysis of alignment tolerances for fiber coupling.

Main Results:

• The polymer waveguide exhibited minimal signal penalty at 25 Gbps, even after transmission through 10-km SMF.
• Coupling loss was measured at 0.24 dB (input) and 1.31 dB (output) to SMF.
• Alignment tolerance for a 0.5 dB loss increase was found to be ±1.0 μm in both vertical and horizontal directions.
• The dry-film process proved effective for creating functional polymer waveguides.

Conclusions:

• The dry-film polymer waveguide is a promising solution for silicon photonics chip packaging.
• The demonstrated performance meets the requirements for next-generation optical multi-chip modules.
• This technology facilitates high-speed data transmission and reliable optical interconnects.