A monolithic PDMS waveguide system fabricated using soft-lithography techniques

Author

Chang-Yen, David A. ; Eich, Richard K. ; Gale, Bruce K.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech. Eng., Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

Volume

23

Issue

6

fYear

2005

fDate

6/1/2005 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2088

Lastpage

2093

Abstract

A monolithic waveguide system using poly(dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) was designed, fabricated, and characterized. The waveguide demonstrated good confinement of light and relatively low attenuation at 0.40 dB/cm. The robustness and handling properties of the completed waveguides were excellent, and the process yield exceeded 96%. The waveguide did exhibit moderate temperature and humidity sensitivity but no temporal variation, and insertion loss remained stable over extended periods of time. Applications of this waveguide system in microscale sensing are immense, judging by the frequency of use of PDMS as the substrate for microfluidic and biomedical systems. The monolithic nature of the waveguides also reduces their cost and allows integration of optical pathways into existing PDMS-based microsystems.

Keywords

integrated optics; micro-optics; optical design techniques; optical fabrication; optical losses; optical polymers; optical waveguides; soft lithography; PDMS-based microsystems; attenuation; biomedical systems; humidity sensitivity; insertion loss; light confinement; microfluidic systems; microscale sensing; monolithic PDMS waveguide system; optical pathways integration; poly(dimethylsiloxane); soft-lithography techniques; waveguide design; waveguide fabrication; Costs; Frequency; Humidity; Insertion loss; Microfluidics; Optical attenuators; Optical losses; Optical waveguides; Robustness; Temperature sensors; Micro-total-analysis systems; poly(dimethyl siloxane); soft lithography; waveguide;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JLT.2005.849932

Filename

1440516