Reliability of epoxy-based polymer optical waveguide devices under high temperature

The film thickness and the refractive index are the two critical parameters of optical waveguide devices. Any change in such parameters can greatly affect the optimum design as well as the performance of the devices. However, the stability of those parameters in polymer system is mostly affected by adverse environments such as high temperature (over 200 °C). In this paper, the stability of the above-mentioned parameters under the high temperature was studied in order to understand the reliability issues of the epoxy-based optical polymer for photonic devices. It is found that the above-mentioned properties of polymer film are very sensitive to the high temperature environment. Thus, this study provides important illustration and directions for the fabrication of better performance and reliable photonic devices.