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

A 75-cm-long circular-core polymer waveguide compatible with standard 50-μm-core multimode fibers (MMFs) is designed and fabricated by using a direct inscribing method for high-speed and high-density optical interconnects. The fabricated waveguide has low loss (<0.044 dB/cm at 850 nm) and low crosstalk (<-34 dB with a core pitch of 62.5 μm) with a negligible coupling loss with the MMFs. It also exhibits a low bending loss (<0.08 dB/mm with a bending radius of 4 mm), which agrees well with calculated results. Error-free NRZ data transmission over the 75-cm-long waveguide at 25 Gb/s is demonstrated, and 4 × 25 Gb/s short wavelength division multiplexing (SWDM) is realized on a straight waveguide. Moreover, a two-layer waveguide and a 3-dimensional (3D) Y-splitter/combiner are also fabricated for 3D integration.