650-nm 1 × 2 polymeric thermo-optic switch with low power consumption.

In this paper, a low-power 1 × 2 polymeric thermo-optic switch operating at the polymer optical fiber low-loss window of 650 nm was studied. The characteristic parameters of the switch were carefully designed and simulated. The fabrication was done by using standard semiconductor fabrication techniques such as spin-coating, photolithography, and dry etching. The device was fabricated based on poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)-based materials with the Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) structure. The device shows an extinction ratio of over 23.4 dB at 650 nm with a very low-power consumption of 5.3 mW. The measured switching rise time and fall time are 464.4 and 448.0 µs, respectively.