Abstract

Multimode polymer waveguides have been developed to create low-cost, high-speed on-board optical interconnects. Buried optical waveguides made from SU-8 in a polymethyl methacrylate polymer (PMMA) substrate covered with a thin PMMA sheet are a low-cost option for electro-optical interconnects. The propagation losses for a $600\mathrm{\mu m}\times 600\mathrm{\mu m}$ straight waveguide were 1.96, 1.32, and $1.39\mathrm{dB}/\mathrm{cm}$, respectively, at three different wavelengths (850, 1310, and 1550 nm). The bending loss for a 15 mm bending radius is as high as $6\mathrm{dB}/\mathrm{cm}$. Transition and radiation losses dominate overall loss when the bending radius is less than 30 mm. The waveguide was excited using a multimode 850 nm VCSEL transmitter and detected using butt-coupled and lens-coupled receivers. The coupling loss was about 1 dB for the butt-coupling technique and 2 dB for lens coupling. The response bandwidth and the group delay of direct modulated (IF) signal were independent of the channel waveguide for communication speeds up to more than 3 GHz. This technique is viable for low-cost, short-length buried optical waveguides.

© 2015 Optical Society of America

Characteristics and crosstalk of optical waveguides fabricated in polymethyl methacrylate polymer circuit board

Hanan H. Hamid, Christian E. Rüter, David V. Thiel, and Thomas Fickenscher
Appl. Opt. 55(32) 9017-9021 (2016)

Directly inscribed multimode polymer waveguide and 3D device for high-speed and high-density optical interconnects

Xiao Xu, Lin Ma, Ying Shi, Takaaki Ishigure, and Zuyuan He
Opt. Express 27(16) 22419-22428 (2019)

Transition, radiation and propagation loss in polymer multimode waveguide bends

Ioannis Papakonstantinou, Kai Wang, David R. Selviah, and F. Aníbal Fernández
Opt. Express 15(2) 669-679 (2007)

90°-bent graded-index core polymer waveguide for a high-bandwidth-density VCSEL-based optical engine

Naohiro Kohmu, Maho Ishii, Ryosuke Hatai, and Takaaki Ishigure
Opt. Express 30(3) 4351-4364 (2022)

Circular core single-mode 3-dimensional crossover polymer waveguides fabricated with the Mosquito method

Omar Faruk Rasel and Takaaki Ishigure
Opt. Express 27(22) 32465-32479 (2019)