Integrated Liquid-Crystal-Based Modulators: Packaging Processes and Evaluation Techniques

We discuss fabrication processes, important considerations, and evaluation techniques for successful packaging of liquid crystal (LC) into silicon-photonics platforms, enabling compact and power-efficient integrated modulators. We demonstrate an LC-packaging fabrication process, microscopy-based LC-alignment evaluation techniques, a heat-based LC-realignment procedure, and UV-exposure effects on modulator performance.