DCM-polyimide system for triple-stack poled polymer electro-optic devices

We report the background leading to the development of the first all-polyimide system (cladding/core/cladding) suitable for fabrication of electro-optic waveguide devices on silicon substrates. The cladding layers are spun from a low optical loss, commercially available polyimide that is suitable for multilayer stacks. The electro-optic material consists of this same polyimide as host to a commercially available guest chromophore and is based upon our prior work on thermoplastic polyimides. The synthesis and purification of this chromophore and an analog is discussed. We also present the materials and process development methodology with the results for this polymer system and demonstrate it by fabrication of an all-polyimide Mach- Zehnder modulator operating at 830 nm. CMOS-compatible switching using a device based on the new material has been demonstrated.