Patent ID: 7257304

Claim:
A method of fabricating an integrated optical component comprising: providing a substrate, at least a face of the substrate having a first cladding layer disposed thereon; forming a core material layer on the first cladding layer; forming a plurality of different optical devices on the substrate, each device comprising a plurality of waveguides, each waveguide comprising a waveguide core formed in the core material layer and disposed on a respective mesa formation formed in the first cladding layer; selecting an optimum height for the mesa formations in a first said optical device so as to achieve a desired level of waveguide birefringence in said first device, and optimizing the waveguide birefringence of at least one other said optical device so as to obtain a required level of waveguide birefringence in the integrated optical component; and forming at least one dummy waveguide in at least one of the optical devices, wherein the at least one dummy waveguide is selected so as to achieve a desired level of waveguide birefringence in the optical device in which the dummy waveguides are formed.