Organic optical waveguide fabrication in a manufacturing environment

Optical waveguides based on organic materials have been fabricated in a laboratory environment but the scaling and manufacturing processes needed to produce these waveguides have been scant. The volume production of low loss organic waveguides in a conventional state of the art Printed Circuit Board (PCB) manufacturing plant has proven to be challenging both from processing and equipment set perspectives. In collaboration with IBM and Dow Chemicals, Endicott Interconnect (EI) has developed scalable processes that can be implemented in a manufacturing environment. Our contribution is to refine and adapt the processes developed by our collaborators to provide the basic frame work required for the volume manufacturing of organic optical waveguides. The resulting organic optical waveguide yields and cost are the most important consideration in this development work. In this paper, we will show various organic optical waveguide samples using the fabrication methods developed in this work. A detailed discussion of: all the processes, materials and equipment sets that are employed in the fabrication of the organic optical waveguides will be presented. The preparation of substrates to be used as the base for waveguide build up layers is described. The need for clean room processing steps for the subsequent fabrication of optical layers will be explained. Rational of fabrication tool set and process selection will be discussed. Loss measurement test equipments and test strategy of organic optical waveguides will also be described. Finally, waveguide reliability and loss measurement results will be presented.