Abstract: Single mode perfluoropolymer waveguide structures, fabricated on polymer substrates for athermal operation, exhibit polarization independent, ultra low loss of <0.04) and <0.05 dB/cm at 1310 and 1550 nm, respectively.Porous structure that arises during the fabrication process is studied by considering its implications in the propagation loss.We demonstrate that porous structure is to be reduced to nanoscale, in order to realize waveguides structure with ultralow propagation losses.These waveguide architectures form the basis for a new photonic polymer device technology platform for high performance integrated devices.

Key words: perfluoro-polymer, nano fabrication, optical loss, channel waveguide