Micro-optical components based on silicon mold technology

Abstract

Two micro-optical components fabricated by silicon molds are described. One component is micro-cavity in micro-scales and the other is sub-micron grating with a pitch of 200 nm. The feasibility of two methods for the micro-fabrication of the silicon molds is investigated: one method is for making hundreds of micrometer size silicon molds by using conventional photolithography and deep reactive ion etching (Deep-RIE) technique combined with wet etching; and the other is for fabricating sub-micron grating molds by using electron beam lithography and fast atom beam etching (FAB). Sub-wavelength structure is successfully transferred from silicon mold to poly-methyl methacrylate (PMMA) material. The yield and repeatability of the original master are quite good. This technique can also be used to fabricate other micro-scale structures.