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

Polymeric optical multimode waveguides and micromirrors have been fabricated by UV lithography and X-ray lithography for optical interconnects. A UV-curable epoxy based polymer (SU-8) was used for UV contact printing. The material has low optical loss and is thermally stable up to 200 °C. Polymethylmetacrylate (PMMA) was used as the core layer which is a positive X-ray resist and optically transparent in visible and near IR region. The propagation loss of the fabricated multimode waveguides by the UV contact printing method was 0.36 dB/cm. Waveguide losses of 0.33 dB/cm at 633 nm and 0.54 dB/cm at 830 nm was obtained using PMMA waveguides fabricated by X-ray lithography. The losses of micromirrors were as low as 0.43 dB at both wavelengths.