Flexible multimode polymer waveguides for versatile high-speed optical interconnects

Abstract

In this work, the loss and bandwidth performance of flexible multimode polymer waveguides are investigated under different launch conditions. It is shown that bending excess loss below 2 dB is achieved for radii larger than 3 mm for a 50 µm MMF input, and twisting loss below 0.6 dB for up to 1 full 360-degree turn even for an relatively overfilled launch. The bandwidth studies reveal that bending the waveguides does not significantly impact their bandwidth performance, with bandwidth-length product values in excess of 150 GHz×m recorded for the launch conditions studied.