Polymer tunable wavelength filter for WDM systems

We have developed a polymer tunable wavelength filter using cross-linked si licone as a waveguide material for wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) s ystems. The filter operated with a low insertion loss of 3.6-4.1 dB, a low crosstalk of < -30 dB, and a wide tuning range of 10 nm in the 20 to 80 deg rees C temperature region without any changes in the spectral profile. We i nvestigated the optical characteristics of the 32-ch WDM signals transmitte d through the filter. We realized a stable filtering operation by introduci ng a feedback system. Sire also applied the filter to a WDM/SCM (subcarrier multiplexing) broadcast-and-select LAN system. We were able to realize a L AN system which operated at 6 Mbit/s and had 3200 channels by using 10-wave length WDM signal. This suggests that our polymer tunable wavelength filter is suitable for practical use.