Porous materials with ultra-low optical constants for integrated optical devices applications

The integration of electronic and optical devices on one chip has been changed the view of an optical system from a traditional table size to a micron order chip size. The fabrication method for this optical integrated circuit mostly followed the process in semiconductor technology. Therefore, study of materials used in integrated-circuit (IC) processes for integrated optical devices fabrication is essential. Recently, ultra-low dielectric constant (K<2.0) porous materials are received much attention as next generation dielectric materials [l]. In this paper, optical characteristics of porous MSQ films were measured for optical waveguide devices applications. Figure 1 shows the refractive index of porous MSQ at 633 nm with different hydration times during preparations.