Thermo-optic vertical coupler switches using hybrid polymer/silica integration technology

A hybrid integration concept has been investigated which combines the advantages of ultra-low loss silica waveguides and low power consumption polymer thermo-optic switches. A 1/spl times/2 vertical coupler type switch (VCS) has been realised. Preliminary results exhibited a crosstalk of <-23 dB, an insertion loss of 3.5 dB (at 1550 nm) and a switching power of <80 mW.