High Volume Manufacturing of Polymer Planar Waveguides via UV-Embossing

摘要

A process is descirbed here which is capable of creating very low cost single or multimode waveguides. 5to reduce the cost of manufacture of the lowest levels, one must move away from intensive individual processing steps such as wafer-based spin coating, lithogrpahy, and development. Here, a process is described which is inspired by the printing industry; especially the printing of raised features to form simple, low cost holograms typically used for product security. All effects must be approached with a level of precision and engineering not typically required in the embossing industry. Precision resist masters of 12" dimension were created using commercially available photoresists and photomasks. High fiedelity molds (and embossing tools) were made by replicating the master in both metal and elastomer. PET film was coated with an underclad layer which uniformly reproduced waveguide channel features. The filling process of waveguide cores proceeded through the coating of the channels followed by lamination of an overcoating. Finally, end face preparation was examined through die cutting, slitting, and laser cutting techniques.