Abstract

High silica glass planar circuits (Planar Lightwave Circuits: PLCs) are circuits that integrate fiber-matched silica waveguides on silicon substrate to provide an efficient means of interaction for the guided-wave optical signals. These circuits include FDM filters for extracting a specific optical signal from multiple signal channels and 8 148 8 matrix switches with thermo-optic (TO) switching elements. Silica waveguides are fabricated with a combination of Flame Hydrolysis Deposition (FHD) and Reactive Ion Etching (RIE). Since a waveguide structure is well defined, device performance can be predicted quire precisely by the numerical simulation and the desired circuits are fabricated with high precision and reproducibility.

© 1991 Optical Society of America