High and low temperature life experiments of Y waveguide multifunctional integrated optical devices

In order to make clear the storage life and weaknesses of Y waveguide multifunctional integrated optical devices at high and low temperature tests, the parameters of the insertion loss, splitting ratio, the extinction ratio and half-wave voltage were tested by carrying out high and low temperature life storage experiments. The tests continued until failure device was appeared. These tests expose two weaknesses: bad performances of the material and structure in coupling region. The tests show that the change of insertion loss≤0.45 dB; splitting ratio variation≤3.0%; polarization crosstalk≤-30 dB; half-wave voltage variation ≤1.8%, and there is no failure device. Arrhenius model was used to evaluate the life of the device. The experiment results indicate that the Y waveguide can suffer the formidable conditions for 18 000 h at 85℃, which is equivalent to that of 1.6×107 h at 22℃. By the Y waveguide experiments, the accelerated life and life estimate at high temperature condition are obtained, and the investigation could provide references for the applications in fiber optic gyroscopes and other sensing systems.