We have fabricated acrylic based optical channel waveguides using proximity
photolithography as well as laser direct writing. The cladding layer is a
photosensitive aliphatic urethane dimethacrylate and the guiding layer is a
photosensitive aromatic acrylated epoxy. This material system provides good
adhesion to a variety of substrate materials. Since both the guiding and
cladding layers are applied, these materials can be employed in several
electrical/optical applications including multi-chip modules using Si,
SiO2, and polyimide as well as high speed electronic board
technologies using teflon based substrates.
Loss measurements show a guide loss of less than 0.08 dB/cm for multi-mode
waveguides fabricated using the direct write laser technique.
Lithographically defined guides have a loss of 0.3 dB/cm for similar size
waveguides.