Experimental studies of silicon nitride waveguides fabrication

In this paper are summarized the results of the experimental studies regarding the fabrication of silicon nitride waveguides with applications in biosensing. The waveguides have been fabricated with electron beam lithography and reactive ion etching using PMMA and metallic mask, respectively. Surface quality after etching process and the etching rate are evaluated with characterization tools like AFM, SEM and optical thin film metrology. From our studies we conclude that the use of a metallic mask is beneficial for obtaining high quality waveguides with small dimensions.