Very Low Power Operation of Compact MMI Polymer Thermooptic Switch

This letter demonstrates a compact, very low power consumption, and low crosstalk multimode interference coupler-based polymer thermooptic photonic switch. The fabricated thin-film small-area heater confirmed the simulation results with operating power consumption as low as 8.9 mW. The switching crosstalk obtained was less than - 23 dB.

I. Introduction

As The ever increasing number of channels required for optical communication systems scale up, challenges from here on include deploying cost-effective and power-efficient network systems as well as maintaining the existing complexity. From this viewpoint, polymer functional devices such as low-power-consuming photonic switches maybe promising for future photonic networks. Despite low-switching speeds of thermooptic polymer materials, applications may include cost-effective low-end switching and fault-tolerance routing. Previously, a compact and high-speed multimode interference (MMI) photonic switch operated by current injection had been developed [1], [2]. Alternatively, similar device characteristics can be realized by applying the thermooptic effect in polymer materials. As a result of low thermal conductivities in polymers, thermal localization is enhanced at lower power consumption in contrast to semiconductors. This letter reports the realization of a very low power consuming thermooptic photonic switch fabricated with low cost and less complexity. In addition, this device shows lower optical loss as well as good optical characteristics comparable to its current injected semiconductor counterpart.