Patent ID: 7062145

Claim:
A waveguide, comprising: a substrate; a lower cladding layer; a core layer; and an upper cladding layer; wherein the lower cladding layer, the core layer and/or the upper cladding layer is hydrophobic and results, if exposed to water, in a water contact angle of 90 degrees or more, and wherein the material of the hydrophobic layer is a hybrid organic-inorganic material having a molecular weight of from 500 to 10000 and comprising a repeating -M-O-M-O— backbone having at least one organic substituent, where M is boron, a metalloid or a metal, and O is oxygen, said at least one organic substituent being a single or multi ring aryl group or alkyl group having 5 or more carbons, which aryl group or alkyl group is fluorinated or deuterated.