Issue |
J. Eur. Opt. Soc.-Rapid Publ.
Volume 8, 2013
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 13076 | |
Number of page(s) | 6 | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.2971/jeos.2013.13076 | |
Published online | 03 December 2013 |
Regular papers
Fabrication of single-mode channel polymer waveguides using vacuum assisted microfluidic soft lithography
1
The Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA
2
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA
3
New Span Opto-Technology Inc., Miami, FL, USA
Received:
28
September
2013
Revised:
13
November
2013
We report on the fabrication of single-mode channel waveguide structures produced by the vacuum assisted microfluidic soft lithography technique. The soft lithographic technique in conjunction with a specially designed photomask pattern and a synthesized UV curable epoxy resin can result in a high yield, cost-effective method for fabrication of channel waveguides. In particular, the use of the microfluidic technique allows for the production of freestanding high quality single-mode channel waveguides on various substrates. Notably, the introduction of sectional flow tapers allows for proper uniform filling of long length small cross-sectional waveguide structures that would ordinarily succumb to clogging at shorter distances during channel filling. The fabricated polymer waveguide was 30 mm in length with a cross section dimension of 7 × 7 µm. The single-mode waveguide propagation was confirmed with beam profiler measurement, and the measured propagation loss for this polymer waveguide was about 0.55 dB/cm.
Key words: Integrated optics / polymer waveguides / microfluidics / soft-lithography
© The Author(s) 2013. All rights reserved.
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.