Improvement of both bandwidth and driving voltage of polymer phase modulators using buried in-plane coupled micro-strip driving electrodes

A large performance improvement of polymer phase modulators is reported by using buried in-plane coupled microstrip (CMS) driving electrodes, instead of standard vertical Micro-Strip electrodes. The in-plane CMS driving electrodes have both low radio frequency (RF) losses and high overlap integral between optical and RF waves compared to the vertical designs. Since the optical waveguide and CMS electrodes are located in the same plane, optical injection and microwave driving access cannot be separated perpendicularly without intersection between them. A via-less transition between grounded coplanar waveguide access and CMS driving electrodes is introduced in order to provide broadband excitation of optical phase modulators and avoid the intersection of the optical core and the electrical probe. Simulation and measurement results of the benzocyclobutene polymer as a cladding material and the PMMI-CPO1 polymer as an optical core with an electro-optic coefficient of 70 pm/V demonstrate a broadband operation of 67 GHz using travelling-wave driving electrodes with a half-wave voltage of 4.5 V, while satisfying its low RF losses and high overlap integral between optical and RF waves of in-plane CMS electrodes.