Integration of Printed Optical Waveguides in Printed Circuit Boards

To achieve industrial approval for using polymer optical waveguides in data transmission applications, a high volume production process is required. Flexographic printing offers a suitable process for mass production of optical functional systems. The integration of planar optical waveguides in printed circuit boards (PCB) allows communication in electromagnetically loaded environments at high bandwidth. To establish polymer optical waveguides in the PCB manufacturing process, substrates and polymers are required to withstand temperatures occurring during compression moulding. Simultaneously, the combination of the waveguide polymer and the adjacent material is responsible for the optical transmission ability of the system. Therefore, a lower cladding is substantial to separate the waveguide from the substrate. In this paper, different combinations of waveguide and lower cladding materials are applied in flexographic printing. Different printing form layouts are tested and the waveguides are evaluated according to their quality for optical applications.