The uniformity of the average refractive index and birefringence of poly-(biphenyl dianhydride-p-phenylenediamine) (BPDA-PDA) films has been investigated experimentally as a function of film thickness. Spin-cast and cured BPDA-PDA films were thinned sequentially by reactive ion etching and the dependence of average refractive index and birefringence on the post-thinned film thickness was determined using a prism wave-guide coupler. Negligible changes in the average refractive index and the birefringence were observed as a result of the thinning process. These results confirm previous assumptions that assert uniform optical anisotropy in the through-plane direction for spin-cast BPDA-PDA films. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.