Fabrication of a 1×4 optical splitter by 3D printing and microfluidic abrasive micromachining

Abstract

3D printing has been widely used in the micromachining fields due to its flexibility in design and fabrication. However, due to the presence of undulations on the surface of the finished part, the 3D printing has hardly been employed in the optics manufacturing. In this study, we propose a manufacturing method for optical splitters based on 3D printing and microfluidic abrasive machining. We simulate the effect of microfluidic abrasive machining on microchannels, that helps mitigate the impact of undulations. The 3D printed optical splitter using microfluidic abrasive machining presents high efficiency in optical propagation and high uniformity. We believe that the 3D printing accompanied with microfluidic abrasive micromachining would be a promising technique in the optics manufacturing fields.