Study On Fabrication Of Polymer Optical Waveguide Based On Moulding Technology

As the basic unit of integrated optics and the foundation of all-optical networks, optical waveguide has very significant application in modern optical communication network. Polymers are the most foreground material in integration optical waveguide devices due to small dielectric constant, high electro-optical and thermo-optical constant, low thermal losses, ease of fabrication and vertical integration and so on. Combined with the mould made by the ultra-precision diamond cutting technique, ultra-precision moulding technique is put forward to realize quick and large-lot production of polymer optical waveguide devices. The main contents are expressed as follow:1. The waveguide core and cladding polymer materials suitable to moulding technique were selected based on optical waveguide theory. According to the coupling theory with the fiber, the polymer optical waveguide was designed. The specific manufacturing process flow was brought forward based on the ultra-precision moulding for polymer optical waveguide.2. As the analysis of trapezoidal waveguide was difficult, perturbation method equivalent to rectangle waveguide was brought forward. The trapezoidal waveguide was successfully equivalent to rectangle one with this method. The rectangle optical waveguide scattering loss theory mode was established and its validity was proved by optical simulation. With perturbation method and scatter loss theory, the optical loss caused by the surface roughness and dimension error was confirmed. Guidance was provided for the waveguide mould manufacture and injection moulding.3. The diamond tool used to machining waveguide mould was designed according to the microstructure fly-cutting processing technique. After check experiment the single crystal diamond was defined to make the tool. The optimal fly-cutting processing parameters used to machining the waveguide mould were settled through orthogonal test. The optimal injection moulding processing parameters was found taking dimension and surface roughness as the performance indexes.4. The method for polishing end-face of polymer waveguide via magnetorheological finishing technique was put forward to achieve high optical quality surfaces. A fine polymer waveguide end-face was gotten by experiment based on the designed polishing equipment.5. Coupling characteristic with fiber was analyzed and simulated. The double five-freedom micro-positioning platform was established based on the characteristic. The fine light transportation performance was testified by optical test experiment. It was proved that the feasibility and validity of quick and large-lot production of polymer optical waveguide devices using replication moulding technique combined with mould made by ultra-precision diamond fly-cutting process.