Patent ID: 7217584

Claim:
A method of making a silicon-insulator-silicon thin-film structure for an optical modulator, the method comprising the steps of: providing a first substrate, the first substrate comprising a silicon-on-insulator structure, the silicon-on-insulator structure having a silicon layer and a buried oxide layer; providing a second substrate comprising a silicon layer; providing a thin-film dielectric layer having a predetermined thickness to function within a waveguide of an optical modulator of at least a portion of an exposed silicon surface of one of the silicon layers of the first and second substrates to create first and second modulator components; and positioning the first modulator component to overly at least a portion of the second modulator component thereby forming a silicon-insulator-silicon thin-film structure within which a waveguide of an optical modulator is created; wherein the step of positioning further comprises the step of bonding at least a portion of the first modulator component to at least a portion of the second modulator component.