Polymer hybrid materials for planar optronic systems

Planar optronic systems made entirely from polymeric functional materials on polymeric foils are interesting architectures for monitoring and sensing applications. However, foil based polymer microstructures have often low mechanical or thermal stability. Microstructures such as waveguides deform quickly and lose their function. To avoid this, we use thermally reactive groups integrated into the polymer backbone which can later on be reacted with adjacent C-H-groups to form a polymeric network. This crosslinking reaction strengthens the stability [1] of the polymer but reduces the flexibility of the material. This problem can be circumvented if copolymers are used which carry components having a low glass transition temperature. The thus generated material is then filled into a PDMS stamp and hot embossed onto a foil substrate e.g. PMMA and results in flexible, yet mechanically stable polymer ridge waveguides. In our contribution we will report on the synthesis of these materials, their processing to multimode waveguides and the characterization of these waveguides. [1] Körner, M., Prucker, O., Rühe, J.; Proc. Of SPIE, Vol. 9626, 9626O-1