Realization and Performance of an All-Polymer Optical Planar Deformation Sensor

Kelb, Christian; Rahlves, Maik; Reithmeier, Eduard; Roth, Bernhard

doi:10.1109/jsen.2015.2472301

Cited by 18 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…In a next step, we also plan to utilize the process for the realization of all-polymer optical displacement sensors based on the systems developed earlier 9 and to further investigate the feasibility of the reactive lamination process for production of more complex optical devices. This will also include a series of tests to quantify the influence of environmental parameters, including temperature cycling and long-term exposure to UV radiation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…8 Current research in integrated optics and photonics focuses on the fabrication of embedded systems in thin polymer foils including waveguides as well as illumination and sensing elements. 9 Such structures are commonly fabricated by means of hot-embossing processes for microstructuring of substrate layers 10,11 with the claimed benefit that the processes can be upscaled to a roll-to-roll approach. Usually, to obtain embedded waveguides, a trench is created in a substrate in an initial embossing process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Kelb

Rother²,

Schuler³

et al. 2016

Opt. Eng

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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.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Kelb

Rother²,

Schuler³

et al. 2016

Opt. Eng

Self Cite

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“…In an earlier work, the simulations for the sensor concept were discussed [7]. Furthermore, a prototype using commercial polymer optical fibers was presented [8]. The next steps of our work consist of the fabrication of this strain sensor using the presented waveguide fabrication techniques.…”

Section: Optical Strain Sensormentioning

confidence: 99%

Low-cost fabrication of optical waveguides, interconnects and sensing structures on all-polymer-based thin foils

et al. 2016

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Micro-optical sensors based on optical waveguides are widely used to measure temperature, force and strain but also to detect biological and chemical substances such as explosives or toxins. While optical micro-sensors based on silicon technology require complex and expensive process technologies, a new generation of sensors based completely on polymers offer advantages especially in terms of low-cost and fast production techniques. We have developed a process to integrate micro-optical components such as embedded waveguides and optical interconnects into polymer foils with a thickness well below one millimeter. To enable high throughput production, we employ hot embossing technology, which is capable of reel-to-reel fabrication with a surface roughness in the optical range. For the waveguide fabrication, we used the thermoplastic polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) as cladding and several optical adhesives as core materials. The waveguides are characterized with respect to refractive indices and propagation losses. We achieved propagation losses are as low as 0.3 dB/cm. Furthermore, we demonstrate coupling structures and their fabrication especially suited to integrate various light sources such as vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL) and organic light emitting diodes (OLED) into thin polymer foils. Also, we present a concept of an all-polymer and waveguide based deformation sensor based on intensity modulation, which can be fabricated by utilizing our process. For future application, we aim at a low-cost and high-throughput reel-to-reel production process enabling the fabrication of large sensor arrays or disposable single-use sensing structures, which will open optical sensing to a large variety of application fields ranging from medical diagnosis to automotive sensing.

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“…2 yields an NA = 0.24 and NA = 0.30 for Ormocomp and Supraflex cores, respectively. To achieve single mode waveguides, M needs to be in the interval [1,2). Using Eqn.…”

Section: Fabrication Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Especially, the potential to fabricate these devices in a cost-effective manner enabled the market entry of low-cost sensing devices, for example, to trace biochemical analytes [1,2]. Lab-on-chip devices combining microfluidics and photonics are a promising alliance to determine analyte concentrations [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fabrication of polymer based integrated photonic devices by maskless lithography

Rahlves

2016

SPIE Proceedings

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We present our recent results on the fabrication of photonic devices such as single-mode and few-mode waveguides, Ycouplers as well as integrated interferometric sensor devices. The devices were created by means of a fabrication method based on maskless lithography, which allows for fabricating embedded integrated polymer elements on a scale of several square centimeters with a resolution down to one micron. We demonstrate the versatility of our approach by presenting first results on photonic structures created by maskless lithography.

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Realization and Performance of an All-Polymer Optical Planar Deformation Sensor

Cited by 18 publications

References 17 publications

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

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

Low-cost fabrication of optical waveguides, interconnects and sensing structures on all-polymer-based thin foils

Fabrication of polymer based integrated photonic devices by maskless lithography

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