EFFECTS OF STEAM-REDISSOLUTION ON TRANSMISSION CHARACTERISTICS OF 17 x 17 POLYMER ARRAYED WAVEGUIDE GRATING MULTIPLEXERS

In this article, the RIE process has been improved, a 17x17 polymer arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) multiplexer with flat spectral response have been designed and fabricated using FPE polymer materials. Using the steam-redissolution technique, the insertion loss and the crosstalk have been reduced. Experimental results show that the central wavelength is 1550.86 nm, and 3-dB bandwidth is about 0.478 nm, insertion loss is 10.5 dB, crosstalk is about -20.5 dB. The insertion loss of an AWG device is reduced by about 3 dB for the central channel and 4.5 dB for the edge channels, and the crosstalk is reduced by 1.5 dB after the steam-redissolution. (c) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.