Reliability Analysis of an Inorganic-Organic Hybrid Sol-gel Material System for Waveguiding Applications
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EE13.20.1
Reliability Analysis of an Inorganic-Organic Hybrid Sol-gel Material System for Waveguiding Applications S. O’Brien, R.J. Winfield, A. Connell and G.M. Crean NMRC, University College Cork, Lee Maltings, Prospect Row, Cork, Ireland.
Abstract A novel epoxy-functionalised sol-gel material system for use in photonic waveguiding applications has been developed for use in short-range optical interconnect applications. The sol-gel material is deposited by spin coating to form a thin-film up to 25µm in thickness. The resulting film is selectively cross-linked using photo-lithography, as part of a UV-thermal curing process. A tunable film refractive index over the range 1.481.515 is demonstrated. The near-field images of transmitted radiation (633nm) from fabricated waveguide structures shows both waveguiding and efficient light confinement within the UV-thermally produced core regions. A thermal stability analysis of the waveguides following “Telcordia” environmental testing protocols for passive devices is presented. It is concluded that this materials system has the potential for use in waveguiding applications in environments where enhanced thermo-mechanical stability is required.
Introduction In the context of materials development for optical devices, such as waveguides, inorganic-organic hybrid materials offer new and exiting opportunities [1-7] . The microstructure of these hybrid materials can be carefully controlled via solution chemistry allowing application-specific materials and device development. In addition, the development of multi-functional organo-silanes, such as acrylate and methacrylate alkoxysilanes, has enabled increased control over chemical composition, cross-linking and phase stability within the same materials [8]. This has resulted in the production of new materials that exhibit the optical transparency of polymers, but also have inorganic characteristics, such as thermo-mechanical properties of glasses or ceramics [9-10]. Such ‘tunability’ of properties is of particular interest in the area of optical waveguide materials. These hybrid material systems cannot be easily produced by conventional material processing methods, such as CVD or sputtering and therefore alternative processing routes are required. However, to-date, few reliability studies of the resultant optical devices fabricated using such novel hybrid material and processing routes has been presented. In this work, a novel preparation method for ‘epoxy’ functionalised silica for waveguiding applications is described. This material system was chosen because of the enhanced mechanical and thermal stability imparted by epoxy functionality, in comparison to other organic functional groups, such as methacrylate or acrylate. The thin film fabrication process, optical waveguide characterization and a Telcordia Generic Reliability Passive Optical Component Testing reliability evaluation are presented.
EE13.20.2
Experimental The sol-gel systhesis consisted of the following; 3-glycidoxypropyl-trimethoxysilane (GPTMS), dimethyl-di
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