Pitch control of multi-channel graded-index core polymer waveguide for optical PCB using the Mosquito method

Abstract

We successfully fabricate multi-channel GI circular-core polymer waveguides with precisely controlled pitches utilizing the Mosquito method. The Mosquito method is a very simple method for fabricating GI-core polymer optical waveguides that utilizes a micro dispenser. In this method, a viscous core monomer is directly dispensed into a cladding monomer layer before UV cured, and circular cores are formed by curing both the core and cladding under a UV exposure. Here, it is a concern that a needle position accuracy influences on the interchannel pitch when parallel cores are fabricated by parallel repetitive scan of a single needle. However, we succeeded in controlling the pitch with the Mosquito method and then, GI-core waveguides with 250.7±5.2 μm, 126.7±2.6 μm and 61.7±3.4 μm are successfully fabricated for the pre-set values of 250 μm, 125 μm and 62.5 μm, respectively. Then, we demonstrate a 4 × 10 Gbps transmission over the fabricated GI-core waveguide by connecting the waveguide to an MMF ribbon with a 250-μm pitch, which is realized because the pitch of the fabricated waveguide is accurately controlled to 250 μm.