Design for polymer optical waveguides realizing efficient light coupling via 45-degree mirrors

We design graded-index (GI) circular-core waveguides to realize low-loss light coupling via 45-degree mirrors using a ray-trace simulator. The waveguide’s structural parameters, which determine the insertion loss of the waveguides with 45-degree mirrors, are the cladding thickness, the core size, the refractive index of materials, and the mirror angle. The optimum waveguide structural parameters are determined, and the GI circular-core waveguide with the appropriate structural parameters which is actually fabricated exhibits much lower total link loss than step-index (SI) core waveguides. The tight optical confinement of the GI-core contributes to the reduction of loss increment due to the mirror structure.