The properties of free-standing epoxy polymer multi-mode optical waveguides

Optical Polymer Waveguides Fabricated by Roll-to-Plate Nanoimprinting Technique

“…In this paper, we presented optical waveguides with optical losses lower or comparable with our previously presented results [ 9 , 17 , 29 ] and also comparable with results presented by Choi et al [ 30 ]. Bamiedakis et al presented an optical waveguide for high-speed applications with very low optical losses operating at 850 nm [ 14 ], but our applied R2P fabrication process allowed low cost and mass production.…”

“…We presented polymer multimode optical waveguides with the dimension of the channels 50 × 50 μm fabricated by the photolithography process. The waveguides were fabricated from epoxy polymer EpoCore/EpoClad and the average values of the optical losses for these waveguides were −1.85 dB/cm (650 nm), −0.60 dB/cm (850 nm) and −0.69 dB/cm (1310 nm), respectively [ 9 ].…”

“…There are also papers that present single mode polymer optical waveguides for example Elmogi et al, 2016 [ 9 ]. They present the properties of two types of waveguides, which were fabricated by direct-write lithography and use epoxy EpoCore_5 and siloxane XP-6701A LightLink core layers.…”

“…Therefore, in the last decades, new types of polymers for optics and photonics applications were developed in many laboratories worldwide and some of them are commercially available [ 4 , 5 ]. These polymers include siloxane LIGHTLINK™ XP-6701A core, LIGHTLINK™ XH-100145 clad [ 6 ], UV-curable epoxy polymers Su-8, EpoCore/EpoClad [ 7 , 8 , 9 ], benzocyclobutene (Dow Chemical, Midland, MI, USA) [ 10 ], ZPU resin and polymers (ChemOptics Inc., Daejeon, South Korea) [ 11 ], inorganic–organic hybrid polymers OrmoClear ® FX (micro resist technology GmbH), SUNCONNECT (Nissan Chemical Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) [ 12 , 13 ], UV exposure optical elastomer OE-4140 core, OE-4141 cladding (Dow Corning, Midland, MI, USA) [ 14 ], Truemode Backplane Polymer (Exxelis, Ltd., Washington, DC, USA) [ 15 ], polydimethylsiloxane Sylgard 184, LS-6943 [ 16 , 17 ] and etc. [ 4 , 5 ].…”

“…Optical planar waveguides are basic building blocks for the realization of optics and photonic devices and several different techniques for the fabrication of polymer optics waveguides devices have been reported. These fabrication methods include mask photolithographic technology and following wet etching process [9], photo-resist patterning combined with reactive ion etching [18], two-photonpolymerization [19], laser direct writing [8], electron beam writing [20], flexographic and inkjet printing [21], hot embossing process [22], photo-bleaching [23], etc. These methods involve many processing steps and can lead to long fabrication times and low yield.…”