Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 February 2011
We have fabricated acrylic based optical channel waveguides using proximity photolithography as well as laser direct writing. The cladding layer is a photosensitive aliphatic urethane dimethacrylate and the guiding layer is a photosensitive aromatic acrylated epoxy. This material system provides good adhesion to a variety of substrate materials. Since both the guiding and cladding layers are applied, these materials can be employed in several electrical/optical applications including multi-chip modules using Si, SiO2, and polyimide as well as high speed electronic board technologies using teflon based substrates.
Loss measurements show a guide loss of less than 0.08 dB/cm for multi-mode waveguides fabricated using the direct write laser technique. Lithographically defined guides have a loss of 0.3 dB/cm for similar size waveguides.