Low-cost fabrication of all-polymer planar optical waveguides

Compared to inorganic counterparts, polymer based micro-optical devices show great promise due to their low material and fabrication costs. In this work, we present our recent results in the fabrication of all-polymer optical waveguides on thin polymer foils, which represent the building block of planar micro-optical devices. We discuss the low-cost fabrication process, which is based on hot embossing and doctor blading and can be converted to a roll-to-roll process. We use these techniques to fabricate so-called channel waveguides, which can be buried in thermoplastic or placed on the device surface, thus enabling an interaction between the waveguides and their environment. We investigate the use of different polymer materials and characterize their optical propagation losses. Furthermore, we discuss the fabrication of multilayer optical waveguides based on thermal and adhesive bonding. Finally, we describe possible applications of the fabricated planar waveguides in the field of optical sensing and discuss the next steps of our work.