A simple method for fabrication of thick sol-gel microlens as a single-mode fiber coupler

Author

Weixing Yu ; Yuan, X.C.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. & Electron. Eng., Nanyang Technol. Univ., Singapore

Volume

15

Issue

10

fYear

2003

Firstpage

1410

Lastpage

1412

Abstract

We demonstrate a cost-effective and high-volume fabrication method for building microlenses in hybrid sol-gel material. The fabrication process includes three main steps. First, the microlenses were built in photoresist by a reflowing technique. Second, surface profiles of the microlenses were transferred to an elastic polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) replica. Finally, the microlenses were fabricated by impressing the replica onto a thick sol-gel film with simultaneous ultraviolet curing. As an example, a microlens with a diameter of 80 μm and a sag height of 13 μm was fabricated for a coupling experiment between two single-mode fibers. A measured coupling efficiency of 2.2 dB (60%) was obtained, which could be further improved to approach the theoretical efficiency of 0.3 dB (93%) with an ultraprecision alignment stage.

Keywords

curing; microlenses; optical fabrication; optical fibre couplers; optical polymers; photoresists; replica techniques; sol-gel processing; 13 micron; 60 percent; 80 micron; cost-effective high-volume fabrication method; coupling efficiency; elastic polydimethylsiloxane replica; hybrid sol-gel material; microlenses; photoresist; reflowing technique; replica impression; sag height; single-mode fiber coupler; single-mode fiber coupling experiment; surface profiles; thick sol-gel microlens; ultraprecision alignment stage; ultraviolet curing; Arrayed waveguide gratings; Curing; Glass; Lenses; Microoptics; Optical device fabrication; Optical fiber couplers; Optical materials; Optical surface waves; Resists;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2003.818053

Filename

1232974