Direct pattering of polymer optical waveguide using liquid state UV-curable polymer

We demonstrated the fabrication of single-mode optical waveguides using the direct patterning of aliquid-state UV-and thermally curable polymer. The propagation loss of channel waveguide was 0.85 and 1.83 dB/cm at the wavelength of 1.3 and 1.55μm, respectively, and excess loss from device imperfection was 0.33 dB/cm. These results indicate that the direct patterning of waveguide using liquid-state polymer can be a promising alternative to conventional RIE. This method allows to use UV and thermally curable optical expoxies for the fabrication of waveguides and it is a simple process without RIE.