Design And Fabrication Of Polymer VOA

Variable optical attenuator (VOA) is one of the key devices in Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) network. Its major function is to decay the optical signal quantificationally in optical communication. In this article, a new variable optical attenuator is designed, including choosing material, designing the structure and simulation, and fabrication.According to coupling theory, a coupling-based VOA is designed in this paper. The VOA uses three channel waveguides and utilizes the electro-optic effects of polymer. The middle waveguide is used to input and output the signal light. When the signal light propagates in the VOA, the two waveguides beside the middle waveguide will couple part of the signal light into themselves. The power coupled by the two waveguides is decided by the voltage of the electrode which is covered on the two waveguides. In order to get the exact parameters of the VOA, the Beam Propagation Method (BPM) is used to analyze and simulate the qualities of this device. The results show that this design reduces the drive voltage effectively, and realizes a large loss. The fabrication of the polymer waveguide is studied experimentally. The theory of ultraviolet (UV) radiation and the experimental setup are analyzed. The physical properties of a ridge waveguide sample, such as absorbance spectra, refractive index, and thickness, are measured and analyzed using a prism coupler. All the work could be a good preparing for make VOA. On the other side, a test method is proposed to get the parameters of the VOA when it is achieved experimentally.