Fabrication of multimode polymeric waveguides and micromirrors using deep X-ray lithography

Multimode polymeric waveguides and 45° micromirrors have been fabricated using deep X-ray lithography. Polymethylmetacrylate was used as a core layer and silica and silicone elastomer as a lower and upper cladding layer, respectively. The propagation loss of the waveguide was 0.54 dB/cm at 830 nm and the loss of micromirrors was less than 0.43 dB at the wavelength. The X-ray lithography technique offers the controllability of mirror angles to 45° and -45° so that it gives flexibility to the system architecture of optical interconnections.