Dry-etched silicon-on-insulator waveguides with low propagation and fiber-coupling losses

Author

Solehmainen, Kimmo ; Aalto, Timo ; Dekker, James ; Kapulainen, Markku ; Harjanne, Mikko ; Kukli, Kaupo ; Heimala, Paivi ; Kolari, Kai ; Leskela, Markku

Author_Institution

Microelectron., VTT Inf. Technol., Finland

Volume

23

Issue

11

fYear

2005

Firstpage

3875

Lastpage

3880

Abstract

Optical rib waveguides with various widths and heights were fabricated on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates. Silicon etching was based on dry etching with inductively coupled plasma (ICP)-type reactive ion etcher. The etching process was developed to ensure low optical losses. Propagation loss of 0.13±0.02 dB/cm was measured for the fundamental mode at the wavelength of 1550 nm in a curved 114-cm-long waveguide. The reflection losses were suppressed by applying atomic layer deposition (ALD) in the growth of antireflection coatings (ARCs).

Keywords

antireflection coatings; atomic layer deposition; integrated optics; optical fabrication; optical fibre couplers; optical losses; optical waveguides; rib waveguides; silicon-on-insulator; sputter etching; 114 cm; 1550 nm; antireflection coatings; atomic layer deposition; dry etching; fiber-coupling loss; inductively coupled plasma-type reactive ion etcher; optical rib waveguides; propagation loss; reflection loss; silicon-on-insulator; Dry etching; Optical fiber losses; Optical losses; Optical propagation; Optical waveguides; Particle beam optics; Plasma applications; Plasma measurements; Propagation losses; Silicon on insulator technology; Atomic layer deposition (ALD); integrated optics; optical device fabrication; optical losses; optical waveguides; silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JLT.2005.857750

Filename

1561419