A Report on the Modelling, Design and Fabrication of Polymer Modulators

Abstract

Polymer modulators based on Mach-Zehnder interferometers were designed, modelled, fabricated, and tested in this project. Built on a silicon-on-insulator wafer with 220 nm active silicon width, electron beam lithography, plasma etching, metal deposition and lift-off, and polymer deposition were used in the fabrication process. The simulated waveguide group index is 4.377 at 1.55 m, the estimated r33 of the polymer modulator is 8.46 pm/V and the V is 908 V. The measured group index is 4.541, indicating the fabricated feature size is smaller than the design.