Low-Cost Fabrication of All-Polymer Components for Integrated Photonics

Rezem, Maher; Günther, Axel; Roth, Bernhard; Reithmeier, Eduard; Rahlves, Maik

doi:10.1109/jlt.2016.2639740

Cited by 57 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…After embossing of trenches in PMMA which serves as cladding, NOA68 (Norland) optical adhesive acting as the core material was distributed on the substrate through a doctor blading process and UV cured subsequently. For a detailed description of the fabrication process we refer to [22]. Before initiating the writing process, a coarse adjustment of the waveguide in front of the LD was carried out with aid of standard linear positioning stages (Elliot Scientific) to mimic positioning by pick-and-place machines.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automated Misalignment Compensating Interconnects Based on Self-Written Waveguides

Günther

Schneider

Rezem

et al. 2017

J. Lightwave Technol.

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Abstract-Optical interconnects are the key components for integrated optics to link photonic integrated circuits or to connect external elements such as light sources and detectors. However, misalignment of the optical elements contained and its compensation is a remaining challenge for integrated optical devices. We present a novel method to establish rigid interconnects based on a 2-wavelength self-written waveguide process which automatically compensates for misalignment. We exemplarily demonstrate the capability of our process by writing interconnects between two multimode fibers as well as hot-embossed integrated polymer waveguides and a bare laser diode chip. The coupling efficiency of the interconnects obtained is analyzed with respect to misalignment. We found that coupling losses are as low as 1.3 dB if a lateral misalignment lies within a 10 µm interval, which is achieved by commercially available pick-and-place machines. Our approach is easily combined with high-throughput techniques such as hot embossing and enables low-cost production of interconnects even for mass fabrication in future applications.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automated Misalignment Compensating Interconnects Based on Self-Written Waveguides

Günther

Schneider

Rezem

et al. 2017

J. Lightwave Technol.

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“…The measured propagation losses of the different core materials are given in Table 2, an example of a hot embossed waveguide array is shown in Figure 6 (left). In general, we obtain relatively uniform refractive index distributions across the waveguide cross sections and propagation losses which are sufficiently low for the structures to be used as sensor elements, see Figure 6 (right lowest loss of 0.09 dB/cm is achieved using the printing ink Supraflex as core material (measured at a wavelength of 850 nm [17]). Also, beam splitters with various splitting ratios, low losses and an even distribution of the light intensity over all beam splitter output channels are achieved [17].…”

Section: Manufactured Structures and Their Characterization A) Hot Emmentioning

confidence: 91%

Towards fabrication and application of polymer based photonics networks and sensors

Rahlves

Rezem

Günther

et al. 2018

MOEMS and Miniaturized Systems XVII

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Highly-functional photonic sensor networks integrated in thin polymer foils offer great potential for versatile applications in the life sciences, medicine, environmental analytics or production technology. For their realization, suitable low-cost and high-throughput production techniques need to be developed. Here, we describe work towards this goal, i.e. the fabrication of multimode polymer waveguides through a combination of thermal imprint and doctor blading. For imprint master stamp fabrication, a combined Bosch and O2 plasma etching process in silicon is utilized. We also demonstrate stamp fabrication by an additive manufacturing method, i.e. by employing maskless UV lithography, to enhance the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of our approach. We, thus, realize various all-polymer waveguide arrays, beam splitters, and grating couplers which serve as basic elements to create more complex photonic circuits. We also demonstrate polymer based transmission lines comprising semiconductor as well as organic light sources and detectors. We discuss both the integration of semiconductor light sources and detectors such as verticalcavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL) and photo detectors as well as organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) and organic photo detectors. In first applications, we combine these elements to create sensor arrays for measuring temperature, strain or refractive index. We show results of various sensor types utilizing different measurement principles implemented in laboratory environments so far. For example, a waveguide array containing a linear discontinuity which serves as elongation zone for displacement, strain or tilt measurement by detecting the intensity variation of the transmitted light propagating inside the structure is presented. In future, we plan to create more powerful sensor photonics networks for reliable and robust applications in real life, e.g. for point-of-care testing or production monitoring.

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“…Such basic building blocks have been developed for a couple of years and are also well characterized which concerns their utilization in the single-mode regime [3][4][5]. In the literature several types of optical bend waveguides have been already presented:  bend waveguides described by D. Israel [6] and S. Musa [7]; this will be in more details mentioned later,  single-mode polymer SU-8 2000 waveguide [8], with thickness around 1.7 µm and having different core widths (1.2, 1.6, 2.0, 2.4 and 2.8 µm) and bending radius (300, 200, 150, 100, 75, 50 and 25 µm),  multimode bend optical waveguides based on silicon rib structures (height of 28 μm and width 25 μm); these S-bend structures have the radius ranging from 2 to 20 mm and the bend offset 0.5 mm [9],  fully embedded and air-exposed curved waveguides with a 50 µm × 50 μm cross section having 10 mm bending radius limit [10],  90° bend and S-bend siloxane OE-4140 (core) and OE-414 (cladding) multimode waveguides having typical dimensions 50 µm × 50 µm [11],  multimode bend waveguides with dimensions 50 µm × 50 µm, 75 µm × 50 µm and 100 µm × 50 µm (wide × high) made of acrylate polymer Truemode TM from Exxelis Limited deposited on FR4 wafer intended for wavelength of 850 nm and the refractive index of the core was n core = 1.5560 and that of the cladding was n clad = 1.5264 [12],  polymer multimode waveguide splitter having input waveguide core width 100 µm and ended by S-bend waveguide with different core widths (20, 40, 60 and 80 µm); detailed study was presented in [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Properties of Large Core Polymer Optical Bend Waveguides

Prajzler¹,

Knietel²,

Jašek³

2019

RADIOENGINEERING

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We report about properties of large core plastic planar optical bend waveguides. The dimensions of the waveguides were to be compatible with the commonly used plastic optical fiber with diameter 750 µm and the bend radii of the waveguides varied from 30 to 1 mm. The waveguides were made by engraving of a U-groove by using CNC machining into poly(methyl methacrylate) substrate; the waveguide core layers were made of Norland Optical Adhesive UV photopolymer. We experimentally confirmed that fabricated bends may have the total bend losses A for radii 30 mm 4.1 dB/cm at 850 nm, 4.8 dB/cm at 650 nm and 5.63 dB/cm at 532 nm. These bend waveguides are viable for short reach visible and infrared optical communication with easy and low cost installations.

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Low-Cost Fabrication of All-Polymer Components for Integrated Photonics

Cited by 57 publications

References 34 publications

Automated Misalignment Compensating Interconnects Based on Self-Written Waveguides

Automated Misalignment Compensating Interconnects Based on Self-Written Waveguides

Towards fabrication and application of polymer based photonics networks and sensors

Properties of Large Core Polymer Optical Bend Waveguides

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