An Integrated Mach-Zehnder Interferometric Sensor based on Rib Waveguides

An integrated Mach-Zehnder interferometric sensor operating at 632.8 nm was designed and fabricated by the technology of planar rib waveguides. Rib waveguide based on silica system () was geometrically designed to have single mode operation and high sensitivity. It was structured by semiconductor fabrication processes such as thin film deposition, photolithography, and RIE (Reactive Ion Etching). With the power observation, propagation loss measurement by cut-back method showed about 4.82 dB/cm for rib waveguides. Additionally the chromium mask process for an etch stop was employed to solve the core damaging problem in patterning the sensing zone on the chip. Refractive index measurement of water/ethanol mixture with this device finally showed a sensitivity of about /().