Circular-core single-mode polymer waveguide for high-density and high-speed optical interconnects application at 1550 nm

We demonstrate circular-core 1550 nm single-mode polymer waveguides with a graded-index profile fabricated by commercially available UV-curable epoxies using so-called mosquito method. The relative index difference Delta n of the waveguides was designed to be 0.46% in order to guarantee both single-mode operation and good compatibility with standard single-mode fiber. Accurate refractive index tuning of monomer for core construction was realized by mixing the core and cladding epoxies properly. The core pitch of the waveguides was chosen to be 50 mu m to satisfy the requirements for high-density on-board optical interconnects. Both the optical characteristics and high-speed performances of the waveguides were comprehensively studied at 1550 nm. The measured transmission and coupling loss are 0.79 dB/cm and 0.78 dB, respectively. The waveguides exhibit an inter-channel crosstalk as low as -45 dB, and a 3 dB misalignment tolerance larger than +/- 4 mu m on the input and output facet in both horizontal and vertical directions. NRZ signal at a data rate of 25 Gb/s was transmitted over a 10 cm-long waveguide. There is no obvious degradation on the eye diagram due to the insertion of the waveguide and error free transmission was successfully obtained. Our results imply that the fabricated single-mode polymer waveguides have good potential in high-density and high-speed optical interconnects application. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America