Vacuum-Assisted Microfluidic Technique for Fabrication of Guided Wave Devices

We report on a novel vacuum-assisted microfluidic (VAM) technique for guided wave device fabrication. Ultraviolet curable resins were used to demonstrate the effective VAM waveguide fabrication. Comparisons to a conventional soft molding technique demonstrate that the VAM approach results in lower propagation losses, lower crosstalk, and improved waveguide structures. More importantly, microscope analysis portrays improved device formation, sidewall edges, and the elimination of the polymer background residue inherent to traditional soft molding fabrication techniques. As a low-cost rapid prototyping technique, the VAM soft lithographic method allows guided wave devices to be implemented rapidly and inexpensively.