Fabrication of Polymeric Multimode Waveguides for Application in the Local Area Network and Optical Interconnects.

摘要

We report the fabrication of multimode polymeric waveguides using spin coating, photolithography, and reactive ion etching. Different layer structures have been used, e.g., a UV curable resin is used as a core layer and PMMA as a lower and upper cladding. The layer systems can be spun with good uniformity with thicknesses matching multimode fiber dimensions, and smooth waveguide side-walls have been obtained after etching. The measured performance of these waveguides demonstrates that low-loss waveguides can be fabricated cheaply. The waveguides are used in the realization of novel compact multimode power splitters and star couplers.