Objective
Thick oxide films for passive and active optical components
High performance low cost passive and active optical components are required for the wide spread use of optical telecommunication networks. At present they are fabricated from planar waveguides consisting of micropatterned and doped glass layers with lateral dimensions of several cm and thickness of 3 to 15mm by expensive deposition and patterning techniques.
The objective of this project is to develop a new low cost
technology based on wet chemical processing of micropatterned glass layers for waveguiding at 1.55 mm wavelength and to demonstrate its technical and economical feasibility by three demonstrator devices:a 1:2 splitter with insertion loss < 7 dB a length of < 8 cm and costs < 35 ecu/port,
a planar amplifier with a length of 5 - 8 cm, higher than 10 dB gain for pumping power less than 100 mW, and cost of < 200 ecu,
a wavelength demultiplexer with specifications to be developed by the final user partner.
The base line of the project is the experience of the industrial partners involved in planar waveguide production and an already existing nano technology for making thick films SiO2 particulate sols.
The technical innovation claimed is the development of low
propagation loss waveguide structures based on silicates and/or phosphates glass layers of 3 to 15 mm thickness by a one step process with a high potential for low cost optical components and high indirect benefits for microsystems technology. The general approach is the use of wet chemical routes for the synthesis and processing of high solid content coatings sols and slurries using fine particles and stabilised suspensions by the appropriate basic technologies. In order to obtain the demanded homogeneity in thickness state of the art coating techniques will be screened and adapted. excimer laser drying and rapid thermal processing will be developed in order to eliminate organic residuals and to control the stresses in the layers during densification. New effective direct printing and lithographic micropatterning techniques will be developed. The characterization of the optical properties and the microstructure of the layers and waveguides, will provide inputs for the optimisation of the wholes process.
The project will end up in demonstrator devices development and testing.
Fields of science
Keywords
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
77210 Avon
France