Planar optical waveguide device and manufacture method thereof

Abstract

The present invention discloses a planar optical waveguide device and a manufacture method thereof. The method includes the following steps that: a substrate is provided; a support layer is formed on the substrate; a waveguide layer is formed on the support layer; the waveguide layer is divided into a plurality of strip-shaped waveguides, at least a part of the surface of each strip-shaped waveguide is in sharp-corner transition; and the sharp-corner transition is changed to rounded transition through a reflow technique. According to the planar optical waveguide device and the manufacture method thereof of the invention, the rounded-transitionally waveguides are formed through the reflow technique; since the cross section of each rounded-transitionally waveguide has no sharp corners, and insensitivity to polarization can be realized; since the outer surface of each rounded-transitionally waveguide is a continuous arc surface, loss can be can greatly reduced; and compared with a linear waveguide, the contact area of the rounded-transitionally waveguides and the support layer is small, regions of each rounded-transitionally waveguide which do not contact with the support layer, directly contact with the air, and therefore, the refractive index difference value of the core region and cladding of the waveguide is larger, so that a larger effective refractive index can be obtained, and thus, that the size of the entire device can be further reduced.

Description

Technical field [0001] This application relates to the technical field of optical communication element manufacturing, and in particular to a planar optical waveguide device and a manufacturing method thereof. Background technique [0002] In the Optical Communication Planar Lightwave Circuit (PLC, Planar Lightwave Circuit), cylindrical waveguides have always been the most ideal choice. However, due to the limitation of the preparation process, the waveguides can generally only be made into rectangles or ridges for optical signal transmission and Processing, linear waveguides (such as rectangular waveguides) have rough sidewalls due to etching, and sudden angle changes when the waveguide is bent will increase the loss of the device. [0003] In addition, the polarization-related characteristics are also a problem that the planar optical waveguide has to consider when processing optical signals. Transmission in the planar optical waveguide requires additional resolution of the polar...

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Problems solved by technology

[0002] In the optical communication planar light waveguide (PLC, Planar Lightwave Circuit), the cylindrical waveguide has always been the most ideal choice, but due to the limitation of the manufacturing process, the waveguide can generally only be made into a rectangle or a ridge for optical signal transmission and communication. Processing, the linear waveguide (such as a rectangular waveguide) has rough sidewalls due to etching, and the sudden change in angle when the waveguide is bent will increase the loss of the device

[0003] In addition, the polarization-related characteristics are also a problem that planar optical waveguides have to consider when processing optical signals. Transmission in planar optical waveguides requires an additional solution to the polarization state of incident light, and this problem is particularly serious in linear waveguides.

[0004] Furthermore, due to the small incident aperture of the waveguide, it is difficult for the light emitted by the laser to be coupled into the waveguide, resulting in low coupling efficiency. The current solution is to add a lens between the waveguide and the laser to assist the coupling of light into the waveguide, but this It not only increases the production cost and assembly difficulty, but also hinders the miniaturization of the entire planar optical waveguide device

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