Study On The Heater Of Polymeric Thermo-optical Switch

Optical switch plays a key role in the coming new-generation optical networks. It has a wide application in router switching, wavelength switching and network protection on optical level. Polymeric thermo-optic switch has been attracted much attention in recent years due to its advantages including easy manufacturing, good performance and power saving. This thesis presented our research work on an important component of the polymeric thermo-optic switch, the heater. And the thesis is organized as the following consequence.Firstly, we briefly discussed the thermo-optic effect and the mechanism of Y-branch thermo-optical switch. And then the foundation of heater designing, the theory of heat conduction is introduced.Secondly we interpreted several methods to measure the thermo-optic coefficient. Among them we discussed the method of using prism coupler in greater details. Based on this method, we also measured the thermo-optic coefficient of polymer, which is an important parameter for heater designing in optical switch. And then, we determined the material of heater and electrode in optical switch and also decided the thickness value of the up-cladding according to the relationship among thickness of up-cladding, switching time, the attenuation produced by metal material as well as the coupler efficiency of waveguide and optical fiber.Finally, we designed two heater structures, namely rectangle heater and arc heater, and then calculated the thickness value of heater. We also discussed the performance of switch due to the manufacture error,such as width and thickness error of heater, overlay error of mask. The performance of switch due to the change of wavelength is also discussed.