Cost-effective fabrication of waveguides for PLCs by replication in UV-curable sol-gel material

Christiane Gimkiewicz; Hans D. Thiele; Christian Zschokke; Sanida Mahmud-Skender; Susanne Westenhofer; Michael T. Gale

doi:10.1117/12.545410

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18 August 2004 Cost-effective fabrication of waveguides for PLCs by replication in UV-curable sol-gel material

Christiane Gimkiewicz, Hans D. Thiele, Christian Zschokke, Sanida Mahmud-Skender, Susanne Westenhofer, Michael T. Gale

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Proceedings Volume 5451, Integrated Optics and Photonic Integrated Circuits; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.545410
Event: Photonics Europe, 2004, Strasbourg, France

Abstract

A new wafer-scale replication process for fabricating buried ridge waveguides for telecom/datacom applications using an uv-curable sol-gel material is proposed. Spin coating of the core material on the replication mould is used to form the waveguide cores with a smooth thin layer. The spin parameters allow an accurate control of the thickness and homogeneity. The bottom-cladding is uv-cast between a substrate and the mould, which is covered by the spun core layer. The ridge waveguide cores are demoulded and buried under a top cladding. This process allows the stacking of several layers of waveguides on top of each other to form two-dimensional waveguide arrays. A specially adapted SUSS mask aligner is used to control the cladding thickness between individual waveguide layers and to align them. A waveguide loss comparable to lithographically fabricated waveguides has been achieved.

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Christiane Gimkiewicz, Hans D. Thiele, Christian Zschokke, Sanida Mahmud-Skender, Susanne Westenhofer, and Michael T. Gale "Cost-effective fabrication of waveguides for PLCs by replication in UV-curable sol-gel material", Proc. SPIE 5451, Integrated Optics and Photonic Integrated Circuits, (18 August 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.545410

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