Manufacturing of embedded multimode waveguides by reactive lamination of cyclic olefin polymer and polymethylmethacrylate

Abstract

Abstract. We demonstrate the manufacturing of embedded multimode optical waveguides through linking of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) foils and cyclic olefin polymer (COP) filaments based on a lamination process. Since the two polymeric materials cannot be fused together through interdiffusion of polymer chains, we utilize a reactive lamination agent based on PMMA copolymers containing photoreactive 2-acryloyloxyanthraquinone units, which allows the creation of monolithic PMMA-COP substrates through C-H insertion reactions across the interface between the two materials. We elucidate the lamination process and evaluate the chemical link between filament and foils by carrying out extraction tests with a custom-built tensile testing machine. We also show attenuation measurements of the manufactured waveguides for different manufacturing parameters. The lamination process is in particular suited for large-scale and low-cost fabrication of board-level devices with optical waveguides or other micro-optical structures, e.g., optofluidic devices.

Optical Planar Waveguide Sensor with Integrated Digitally-Printed Light Coupling-in and Readout Elements

“…In this direction, a large effort is currently being made towards the development of materials and compatible manufacturing technologies enabling the large-scale, high-speed, and low-cost production and preparation of microoptical elements, as well as planar photonic systems on polymer foils. Waveguides have been generated in flexible substrates through, for example, lamination or inkjet-printing methods [19,20,21,22,23,24,25]. Interestingly, luminescent acrylate formulations have been applied through inkjet printing on polymeric waveguides generated on poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) substrates by Bollgruen and coworkers to create remotely-addressable light sources that can couple light into flexible waveguides [26].…”

PDMAA Hydrogel Coated U-Bend Humidity Sensor Suited for Mass-Production

“…Although the achievable precision is usually lower than with glass optical devices, polymer-only systems excel in cost-efficiency, mechanical flexibility, and variety of possible shapes. Especially due to the desired compatibility between utilized materials and production processes such as hot-embossing [4] or roll-to-roll applications [5], the search for easily-processable light-guiding substrate and sensing materials is still ongoing.…”