Abstract

Polymer optical waveguides are attractive for economical and practical optoelectronic devices and interconnections in optical communication systems.¹⁾ High thermal stability should have the first priority in optical waveguides used for these purposes so as to provide compatibility with high-performance electronic device fabrication. Sullivan²⁾ has reported thermally-stable ridge waveguides with a loss of 0.3 dB/cm at 0.83 μm fabricated with polyimide. We have synthesized new fluorinated polyimides with high optical transparency at the optical communication wavelengths of 1.3 and 1.5 μm.³⁾ These polyimides are also being applied to low loss and multi-mode optical waveguides. However, single-mode optical waveguides are required for telecommunication systems to allow matching with single-mode optical fibers. This paper describes the first fabrication of single-mode optical waveguides using fluorinated polyimides and an evaluation of the waveguides.

© 1993 Optical Society of America