Deep lithography with protons: a generic technology for the fabrication of refractive micro-optical modules

Volckaerts, Bart; Ottevaere, Heidi; Vila, Araceli; Muruzabal, Maite; Vynck, Pedro; Tuteleers, Patrik; Baukens, Valerie; Hermanne, Alex; Veretennicoff, Irina; Thienpont, Hugo

doi:10.1109/omems.2000.879647

Cited by 23 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…The concept of the DLP process is based on the fact that protons, which penetrate a sample made of linear high-molecular-weight PMMA, will split the long polymer chains [40]. As a consequence the molecular weight of the material located in the irradiated zones will be reduced and free radicals will be created, resulting in material properties that are very different from those of the bulk.…”

Section: Microlenses Fabricated With Deep Lithography With Protons (Dlp)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing glass and plastic refractive microlenses fabricated with different technologies

Ottevaere¹,

Cox²,

Herzig³

et al. 2006

J. Opt. A: Pure Appl. Opt.

166

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We review the most important fabrication techniques for glass and plastic refractive microlenses and we quantitatively characterize in a systematic way the corresponding state-of-the-art microlenses, which we obtained from selected research groups. For all our measurements we rely on three optical instruments: a non-contact optical profiler, a transmission Mach-Zehnder interferometer and a Twyman-Green interferometer. To conclude, we survey and discuss the different fabrication techniques by comparing the geometrical and optical characteristics of the microlenses, the range of materials in which the lenses can be produced, their potential for low-cost fabrication through mass-replication techniques and their suitability for monolithic integration with other micro-optical components.

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Section: Microlenses Fabricated With Deep Lithography With Protons (Dlp)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing glass and plastic refractive microlenses fabricated with different technologies

Ottevaere¹,

Cox²,

Herzig³

et al. 2006

J. Opt. A: Pure Appl. Opt.

166

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“…Deep Proton Writing (DPW) is a unique technology for the rapid prototyping of micro-mechanical and micro-optical elements 1 . The DPW fabrication process consists of the following basic steps.…”

Section: Deep Proton Writingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Roughness measurements on coupling structures for optical interconnections integrated on a printed circuit board

Hendrickx

Erps

Suyal³

et al. 2006

SPIE Proceedings

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In this paper, laser ablation (UGent), deep proton writing (DPW) and laser direct writing (HWU) are presented as versatile technologies that can be used for the fabrication of coupling structures for optical interconnections integrated on a printed circuit board (PCB). The optical layer, a highly cross-linked acrylate based polymer, is applied on an FR4 substrate. Both laser ablation and laser direct writing are used for the definition of arrays of multimode optical waveguides, which guide the light in the plane of the optical layer. In order to couple light vertically in/out of the plane of the optical waveguides, coupling structures have to be integrated into the optical layer. Out-of-plane turning mirrors, that deflect the light beam over 90°, are used for this purpose. The surface roughness and angle of three mirror configurations are evaluated: a laser ablated one that is integrated into the optical waveguide, a laser direct written one that is also directly written onto the waveguide and a DPW insert that is plugged into a cavity into the waveguiding layer.

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“…The optical interconnection module (OIM) containing the necessary features to implement the mentioned functionalities was designed and fabricated in our photonics labs. We used deep lithography with protons (DLP) 8,9,10 , an in-house technology, to fabricate the prototype. The process consists of an irradiation of polymethyl metacrylate (PMMA) with protons, followed by a selective etching or swelling of the irradiated zones.…”

Section: The Micro-optical Pathway Blockmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plastic micro-optical modules for VCSEL-based free-space intra-chip interconnections: demonstrator testbeds with OE-FPGAs

et al. 2003

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We fabricated and replicated in semiconductor compatible plastics a multi-channel free-space optical interconnection module designed to establish intra-chip interconnections on an Opto-Electronic Field Programmable Gate Array (OE-FPGA). The micro-optical component is an assembly of a refractive lenslet-array and a high-quality microprism. Both components were prototyped using deep lithography with protons and were monolithically integrated using a vacuum casting replication technique. The resulting 16 channel module shows optical transfer efficiencies of 50% and interchannel cross-talks as low as -22 dB. These characteristics are sufficient to establish multi-channel intra-chip interconnects with OE-FPGA's.The OE-FPGA we used was designed within a European co-founded MEL-ARI consortium, working towards a manufacturable solution for optical interconnects between CMOS IC's. The optoelectronic chip combines fully functional FPGA digital logic with the drivers, receivers and flip-chipped optoelectronic components. It features 2 optical inputs and 2 optical outputs per FPGA cell, amounting to 256 photonic I/O links based on multi-mode 980 nm VCSELs and InGaAs detectors.With a careful alignment of the micro-optical free-space module above the OE-VLSI chip, we demonstrated for the first time to our knowledge multi-channel free-space intra-chip optical interconnections. Data-communication was achieved with 4 simultaneous channels working at 10Mb/s. The bitrate was limited by the chiptester. Notwithstanding the use of non-aggressive 0.6 µm CMOS technology the FPGA will provide an 80 Mbit/s information rate per channel using manchester encoded links. The whole chip therefore has in principle a peak aggregate signalling rate of approximately 20 GBit/s. Furthermore we investigated the possibilities of a more advanced interconnection module prototyped by combining an in-house fabricated baseplate with microlenses and a commercially available micro 3D glass prism. With this approach the channel count is no longer limited by the thickness of the prism we can fabricate with deep lithography with protons. To conclude we report on the integration of this glass prism and our baseplate and on the first results obtained with this interconnection module.

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Deep lithography with protons: a generic technology for the fabrication of refractive micro-optical modules

Cited by 23 publications

References 2 publications

Comparing glass and plastic refractive microlenses fabricated with different technologies

Comparing glass and plastic refractive microlenses fabricated with different technologies

Roughness measurements on coupling structures for optical interconnections integrated on a printed circuit board

Plastic micro-optical modules for VCSEL-based free-space intra-chip interconnections: demonstrator testbeds with OE-FPGAs

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