Abstract

Low-loss integrated silica waveguides provide an efficient means of lightwave interaction and are used to form a variety of planar lightwave circuits (PLCs) for optical branching, switching, multiplexing, and filtering. Silica waveguides, especially those on silicon substrates, can also be used as platforms (motherboards) for hybrid opto-electronic (OE) integration. This tutorial reviews recent progress in silica waveguide technologies, which are now penetrating the passive component markets for optical networks and providing the innovative ways of packaging OE components.

© 1996 Optical Society of America