Material-saving optical waveguide fabrication process with selective transfers of cores

Tetsuzo Yoshimura; Toshiaki Kofudo; Takahiro Kashiwazako; Kaneyuki Naito; Kazuhiro Ogushi; Yohei Kitabayashi

doi:10.1117/1.2835697

1 January 2008 Material-saving optical waveguide fabrication process with selective transfers of cores

Tetsuzo Yoshimura, Toshiaki Kofudo, Takahiro Kashiwazako, Kaneyuki Naito, Kazuhiro Ogushi, Yohei Kitabayashi

Author Affiliations +

Optical Engineering, Vol. 47, Issue 1, 014601 (January 2008). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.2835697

Abstract

For reducing the material consumption of optical waveguides for chip-scale optical interconnects, we propose a material-saving optical waveguide fabrication process based on light-assisted selectively occupied repeated transfer (LA SORT). LA SORT enables device elements to be selectively transferred onto a substrate with designed arrangements at one time, using all-photolithographic methods. In the proposed process, optical waveguides are fabricated by transferring cores selectively onto final substrates from a picking-up substrate, on which a high-density core array is placed. Since one picking-up substrate can provide cores to a plurality of final substrates, drastic reduction of waveguide material consumption is expected. The process can also construct complete air-cladding waveguides for fine-pattern optical interconnects. By LA SORT, using films coated with UV-curable material, selective transfers of polymer device elements were achieved. A selective transfer of 32-μm-wide, 3-cm-long polymer cores duplicated by the built-in mask method was demonstrated to provide the proof of concept of the process. We also succeeded in fabricating 4-μm-wide polymer cores with tapered mirrors, and making air-cladding waveguides by transferring the cores. Possible applications of the proposed process to nanoscale optical circuit integration are discussed.

©(2008) Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

Citation Download Citation

Tetsuzo Yoshimura, Toshiaki Kofudo, Takahiro Kashiwazako, Kaneyuki Naito, Kazuhiro Ogushi, and Yohei Kitabayashi "Material-saving optical waveguide fabrication process with selective transfers of cores," Optical Engineering 47(1), 014601 (1 January 2008). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.2835697

Published: 1 January 2008

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