Abstract
We demonstrate a new platform for minimally invasive, light delivery probes leveraging the maturing field of silicon photonics, enabling massively parallel fabrication of photonic structures. These Photonic Needles probes have sub-10 μm cross-sectional dimensions, lengths greater than 3 mm–surpassing 1000 to 1 aspect ratio, and are released completely into air without a substrate below. We show the Photonic Needles to be mechanically robust when inserted into 2% agarose. The propagation loss of these waveguides is low–on the order of 4 dB/cm.
Highlights
We demonstrate a new platform for minimally invasive, light delivery probes leveraging the maturing field of silicon photonics, enabling massively parallel fabrication of photonic structures
In order to overcome the challenge of fabricating these 1000:1 aspect ratio waveguide probes, we developed a process based on Mechanical Substrate Removal (MSR)
We demonstrate the concurrent mechanical and optical robustness of up to 3.5 mm long Photonic Needles with cross-sectional dimensions down to 5 μm wide by 10 μm thick
Summary
We demonstrate a new platform for minimally invasive, light delivery probes leveraging the maturing field of silicon photonics, enabling massively parallel fabrication of photonic structures These Photonic Needles probes have sub-10 μm cross-sectional dimensions, lengths greater than 3 mm–surpassing 1000 to 1 aspect ratio, and are released completely into air without a substrate below. We show here a platform for light delivery based on high aspect ratio Photonic Needles – free standing optical waveguides that are long enough to reach deep-tissue, but narrow enough to cause minimal damage. These Photonic Needles have a cross-sectional diameter of only 3 to 10 μm across the entire 3.5 mm length of the probe, displacing orders of magnitude smaller volumes than standard methods. This platform leverages the maturing field of silicon photonics, enabling massively parallel fabrication of photonic structures using CMOS processing
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