Integrated optics has emerged as a promising solution to the electronic interconnect bottleneck, enabling high bandwidth density and low power consumption. Recently, confining photochemical and physical reactions in a micro-volume has given an extra dimension to optical interconnection using glass or polymer. Three-dimensional waveguides can then connect, combine, or split the optical signal among any blocks in all dimensions. However, the refractive index increase is still a challenge to fabricate free-form, stable and single-mode three-dimensional buried waveguides.
This paper presents a new concept to tackle this challenge using the combination of femtosecond direct laser writing (FsDLW) in polymer and external diffusion of a gaseous monomer. FsDLW with two-photon absorption was used to initiate cross-linking following a programmed trajectory to form the waveguide core. A thermal treatment was then needed to complete cross-linking. Afterwards, a low-index monomer from a gas atmosphere was diffused into the uncross-linked cladding. Since this diffusion hardly occurred in the already cross-linked pattern, the subsequent UV flood exposure only cross-linked the diffused monomer with host oligomer in the cladding. This low-index monomer decreased the refractive index of the cladding and, therefore, created enough refractive index contrast for total internal reflection. Finally, the whole structure was hard-baked for polymerization and stabilization.
The peak refractive index change of 0.012 was revealed using refractive near field method. Measured near-field intensity at the end facet of waveguides showed single-mode Gaussian profiles. We further demonstrated how feature sizes can be linearly adjusted in the range of 5-12 μm by varying scanning speed and laser intensity. Moreover, changing the voxel shape by a field aperture in front of the objective was investigated. Our fabrication method requires only one layer of a single material without masks, contact or wet processing. Free-form waveguides with high index contrast have high potential to improve the density and flexibility of optical interconnects at board level. Some applications of this concept are three-dimensional arrays of optical waveguide network routers, optofans, pitch converters or splitters.
KEYWORDS: Waveguides, Refractive index, Polymers, Polymer multimode waveguides, Polarization, Cladding, Signal attenuation, Wave propagation, Near field optics, Near field
We report on the development of a UV-lithography manufacturing process for low loss single mode light waveguides in
a novel polymer and the characterization of the fabricated components in a broad wavelength range from 808 nm to
1550 nm. The main focus of this work lies in providing a quick and cost efficient production technique for single mode
waveguides and low loss integrated optical circuits. To achieve this goal we chose a novel photo-structurable polymer
host-guest-system consisting of SU8 and a low refractive dopant monomer. Near and far-field measurements at different
wavelengths show that the mode propagating within a well designed integrated waveguide structure and the mode of a
standard fiber can exhibit a mode overlap value of approximately 1 and suffer only very low coupling losses. We
demonstrate excess loss of 0.14 dB/cm for 808 nm, 0.33 dB/cm for 1310 nm and 2.86 dB/cm for 1550 nm. Typical
insertion loss values of straight waveguides with a length of 36 mm are 0.9 dB for 808 nm, 1.5 dB for 1310 nm and
10.4 dB for 1550 nm. Polarization dependent loss was found to be less than 0.2 dB on sets of test structures of 36 mm
length. We measured material attenuation in the novel polymer material before cross-linking of approximately
0.04 dB/cm for 808 nm and around 0.20 dB/cm for 1310 nm respectively. The presented production technique is suitable
to provide low loss and low cost integrated optical circuits for sensor and communication applications in a broad
wavelength range.
Cost efficient and purpose build microsystems for technical applications become more and more relevant. In the field of
optical devices we developed an adaptive modular micro-optical system based on a Mach-Zehnder Delay Interferometer
to show the feasibility to fabricate active optical microsystems adaptive to different measurement and data
communication network applications. To realize such an adaptive modular micro-optical system with an active tuning
device, a construction kit was designed and realized to combine different types of signal routing and system tuning, for
example by choosing an optical or electronical signal output and different microactuators suitable for several
applications, with special designed micro-optical benches (MOB) including the respective optical structures or hybrid
integrated components. It is based on automated passive alignment of the optical components and has to be designed by
using well defined interfaces. Different types of this modular system have been set-up and the application as a Fourier
transformed wavemeter are shown as an example.
Integrated optic single mode waveguides in polymer substrates are of interest for several applications especially in the
visible wavelength range e.g. to build waveguide components for biophotonic, sensors or passive splitters. The
manufacturing process contains DUV or UV lithography and some different pre or post exposure bakes depending on the
used type of polymer. Chromium masks offer facile and controllable processing and rapid exposure times. Surface
waveguides can be covered with an index matched cladding substrate on top to get buried light guiding. The end faces
and also the over all thickness of about 1 mm of the component packages gives the possibility for a stable coupling
between fiber arrays and planar waveguide substrates.
The paper describes the results of a single mode field analysis and the experimental adjustment of polymer waveguides
for wavelengths within the visible range of light to achieve low coupling losses. Some different manufacturing process
steps are compared depending on the used polymer material. A comparison between the measured waveguides and fiber
mode near field diameters and the nominal calculated numerical apertures are presented. The different insertion loss is
measured and illustrated as well.
Micro-optical interferometer systems are requested for optical sensor application as well as for signal monitoring or
signal (de)modulation in case of optical data networking. Using the opportunities of LIGA technology with its
precision in manufacturing of polymeric microstructures with a high aspect ratio, e.g. for the exact alignment of
commercially available optical elements or to realize the micro optical structures itself, offers the possibility to design
and fabricate complex modular micro-optical systems. Due to this modular concept the MOEMS are usually composed
of a micro-optical bench (MOB) and an external platform with a micro actuator. The combination to a subsystem can be
realized by standard assembly technology.
A first designed prototype using this advanced modular concept is a micro Mach-Zehnder interferometer based on free
space propagation. It was developed to be applied in different fields of c-band applications at 1550 nm up to 40 Gbps.
We studied both experimentally and numerically the spectral behavior of modal birefringence in channel waveguides
inscribed in PMMA by DUV illumination. The measurements of birefringence were carried out using spectral
interference method for different waveguide widths, respectively 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 μm which were inscribed using 3 J/cm2.
We have also modeled the spectral dependence of birefringence related only to waveguide geometry using FEM method.
High discrepancy reaching one order of magnitude was observed between measured and calculated birefringence. This is
related to the fact that numerical analysis accounts only for so called geometrical birefringence induced by the
asymmetry of the waveguide, while in measurements the overall modal birefringence relates to both the geometrical and
the material effect. Our measurement results indicate that the contribution of the material birefringence in the analyzed
waveguides may reach up to 3×10-4 in a short wavelength range.
The need for low cost micro optical devices is increasing thru all application fields like tele- and data-communication, industrial automation, displays, automobile, sensor applications etc. Polymer technologies can follow this demand due to the possibility of mass fabrication by replication techniques. Various technologies have been developed in the past to fulfill the demanding requests given by the use of micro structures in optical applications. Part of them are already used in industrial manufacturing. Also demanding products are introduced into the market. In the paper we will give an overview of the relevant techniques and demonstrate their possibilities by a few product examples.
A novel design for a compact and robust micro optical distance sensor is presented. It is suitable for mass fabrication by micro molding known form the LIGA technique [1] and automatic assembly. Due to a modular design approach a distributed fabrication of the device modules is currently implemented. This allows a separate fabrication of the modules at several manufacturers each one being an expert for the special technology needed to fabricate the module. During the design phase not only the optical specification of the sensor system but also all requirements given by the manufacturers, such as easy manufacturability with high throughput as well as defined interfaces need to be considered.
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