WRAP2015 1570212657

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Design and Fabrication of Low Cost Acrylic based
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Integrated Optical Waveguides
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10   Krittish RayChaudhuri Rabinder Henry
11   Jampot Photonics SENSE, VIT University
12   Pune, Maharashtra, India Chennai, India
13   krittish.rc@jampotphotonics.com rabinder.henry2015@vit.ac.in
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16   Abstract— In this paper the design of different types of different types of waveguide scaled up in dimension (mm)
17   waveguide have been discussed and their fabricated large have been studied. The loss in the waveguide has been
scale(mm) models using acrylic of different refractive indices as simulated, the mask and the flow of fabrication has been
18   the cladding and the core material have been demonstrated. The prepared using CAD tool.
19   designed waveguides can be used for guiding the light into an
20   optoelectronic system.
21   II. METHODOLOGY AND DESIGN
22   Keywords— Device Design, Scaling Laws, Waveguides, The types of waveguides designed are rib, embedded and
23   Refractive Index, Scaling Laws, Photonic Integrated Circuits, immersed. The design of the waveguide has been done
24   Acrylic, PMMA.
according to the Scaling Laws. The design and fabrication of
25   these acrylic waveguides have been done in two stages. First,
26   I. INTRODUCTION the device structure has been simulated with the loss
27   Waveguides are the basic building blocks of Photonic calculation and the mask has been designed in CAD tool.
28   Integrated Circuits. Waveguides are basically devices that Finally, the waveguides has been fabricated by laser cutting
29   carry light from one part of the circuit to the other. The method. The size of the device designed here is in
30   refractive index of the material is the main deciding factor for millimeter(mm). The main goal of the work is to produce the
31   light propagation through the waveguide. The choice is often a best results in a cost effective process. The materials used here
32   bit difficult as all materials have unique properties, is easily available and of less cost.
33   characteristics, advantages and limitations.
34   Recent advances in the fabrication of waveguide has A. Design in CAD Tool
35   been reported where a process of UV induced fabrication of FieldDesigner, MaskEngineer, FlowDesigner and ASPIC
36   single mode waveguides in a polymer has been realized that modules of Phoenix Software are used for waveguide device
37   helps in an inexpensive replication of common mask design and simulations. FieldDesigner simulates modal
38   techniques for batch fabrication[1]. Silica waveguides is functionality and thermo electric effects for 2D model of the
39   another option which has been researched on and different device. MaskEngineer provides an object oriented and
40   scientific works has been established on the basis of silica parametric chip and mask layout package both for pick and
41   waveguides. Although highly successful, silica waveguides
place routing and custom design of the mask for fabrication of
42   have fundamental limitations in their attenuation and they
show non linearities which is due to the dense material filled the device. FlowDesigner actually shows 2D simulations of
43   processing steps of the flows of fabrication of the device.
44   core[2]. Other works established the fact that rectangular
waveguide and circular waveguide are two options, but both ASPIC validates the functionality of the device without
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have their advantages and disadvantages. In rectangular restrictions on dimensions and complexity[6].
46   waveguide the guided wavelength and the cut off wavelength
47   is higher, whereas the power required for transmission is B. Scaling Laws
48   lower, whereas attenuation is more in comparison to circular The size of the device in discussion are basically in micro
49   waveguide[3]. So a choice of better waveguide is easily and nano scale. But the focus here is to reduce the cost at the
50   feasible. The problem of loss in optical waveguide has been same time provide optimal results. The geometrical design has
51   addressed by fabricating waveguide by the process of been upscaled with respect to scaling laws. The quantum
52   femtosecond double pulse fabrication using femtosecond laser physical phenomena that is predominant in the nano structures
53   source, where a minimum propagation loss has been reported will not be the same as the effects in their upscaled versions.
54   with a pulse separation time of 3ps[4]. Femtosecond laser
The laws that are followed to scale the devices which effects
55   pulse has also been used to fabricate waveguides using
transparent materials like K-PG375 glass (melting point of the behavior of the devices are called scaling laws. Here a
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648K), fused quartz and polymethylmethacrylate(PMMA)[5]. method of Linear Scaling has been followed to characterize
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In the work described henceforth a comprehensive design of the physical behavior of the device[7]. An existing design has
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been scaled up 500 times[8]. The width and height of the core
is taken as 6mm each. Accordingly, the width and height of
the cladding is 7mm and 3mm respectively. The material used
for core is a transparent acrylic material with a refractive
index of 1.49 and the cladding is made of milky acrylic
material with a refractive index of 1.3889. Both these
materials are easily available in the Indian market. Milky
white acrylic is a compound mixture of transparent acrylic
with Phosphazenes (Phosphonitrilic Chloride)[9].

PCL5 + NH4Cl (1/n) [NPCl2] n + 4HCl [9] Figure 2: Mode 1 of Rib Waveguide
Figure 2 shows the first mode of the designed rib waveguide. It is
III. CAD TOOL DESIGN observed from TABLE II that the first mode sends the
The PhoeniX Software tools have been used to simulate the maximum power for the designed dimension.
Rib, Embedded and Immersed waveguides.
A. Rib Waveguide
The Rib waveguide is a film layer deposited along the strip
of the substrate, whose thickness is increased along the center
of the substrate. The structure again has a core-air interface
which helps in maintaining the refractive index difference
which leads to the confining of the light wave into the core[8].

Figure 3: Mask(Top View) of the device for Rib Waveguide

Figure 3 shows the top view of full device mask of the rib
waveguide. The bottom substrate is not visible since the
dimension of the lower core layer is same as the substrate. The
dimension for the mask for top layer of core is taken as 3cm in
width and 1cm in length, the second core layer is 6cm in width
1cm in length and the mask for substrate is taken as 6cm in
width and 1cm in length.
Figure 1: Structure of a Rib Waveguide

Figure 1 shows the structure of a Rib Waveguide with

dimensions of substrate 7mm and the upper layer of the core 3
mm and the lower layer of the core 7mm which is deposited
on the substrate layer. The core material is transparent acrylic
with refractive index of 1.49 and substrate of milky acrylic
with refractive index of 1.3889, the outer covering medium
being air. Figure 4: Fabricated Rib Waveguide
The simulation resulted in total of 5 modes out of which 3
are transverse electric (TE) and 2 are transverse magnetic Figure 4 shows the actual picture of the fabricated rib
(TM). waveguide with transparent acrylic as the layers of core and
milky acrylic as the substrate.
TABLE I. POWER OVERLAP, NUMBER OF MODES AND POLARIZATION
FOR RIB WAVEGUIDE
B. Embedded Waveguide
Power Polarization
Mode
Overlap This type of waveguide is also called the buried waveguide,
0 0.000341066 TE
1 0.0577162 TE
where only one surface is exposed to the outer material or air.
2 0.000305827 TE Light waves is very efficiently guided through this type of the
3 0.0114929 TM waveguide. If two embedded waveguides are cascaded
4 0.00084591 TM
together, evanescent waves overlap, and coupling can be done
via the evanescent field. This forms the basis of optical guide
coupler[8].

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Figure 5: Structure of a Embedded Waveguide
Figure 5 shows the structure of an Embedded Waveguide
with dimensions of substrate 7mm with an etching done of
width 3mm and height 3mm, where core is deposited. So the
width and height of the core is 3mm each. The core material is
transparent acrylic with refractive index of 1.49 and substrate
of milky acrylic with refractive index of 1.3889, the outer
covering medium being air.
The simulation resulted in total of 4 modes out of which 2
are Hybrid and 1 is TE and 1 is TM.
TABLE II. POWER OVERLAP, NUMBER OF MODES AND POLARIZATION
FOR EMBEDDED WAVEGUIDE
Power Polarization
Mode
Overlap
0 0.1592 Hybrid
1 0.0796382 Hybrid
2 0.00372951 TM
3 0.00499477 TE
Figure 6: Fundamental mode of Embedded Waveguide
Figure 6 shows the fundamental mode of the designed
embedded waveguide. It is observed from TABLE IV that the
fundamental mode sends the maximum power for the designed
dimension. Here, specific concentrated energy patterns are
obtained which shows a very good scope of connecting to
other waveguides forming an optical coupler.
Figure 7: Mask(Top View) of Embedded Waveguide
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Figure 7 shows the top view of full device mask of the
embedded waveguide. Fabricating embedded waveguides
requires a specific mask for etching of the substrate for the
core to be embedded in it. The dimension for the mask for
substrate layer of is 6cm in width and 1cm in length and the
mask for etching of the substrate layer and deposition of the
core layer is 3cm in width 1cm in length, each.
Figure 8: Fabricated Embedded Waveguide
Figure 8 shows the actual picture of the fabricated
embedded waveguide with transparent acrylic as the core and
milky acrylic as the substrate.
C. Immersed Waveguide
In immersed waveguide the core is completely engulfed in
the substrate material. The mathematics is rather simple
because of the symmetry of the x and y directions. This
geometry is suitable for propagation of torsional waves along
the structure[8].
Figure 9: Structure of a Immersed Waveguide
Figure 9 shows the structure of an Immersed Waveguide
with dimensions of substrate 7mm in width and 10mm in
height, where the core immersed is of 3mm width and 3mm
height. The core material is transparent acrylic with refractive
index of 1.49 and substrate of milky acrylic with refractive
index of 1.3889, the outer covering medium being air.
The simulation resulted in total of 4 modes out of
which 2 are Hybrid and 2 are TE, which shows that this
present design of waveguides do no support TM modes.
TABLE III. POWER OVERLAP, NUMBER OF MODES AND POLARIZATION
FOR IMMERSED WAVEGUIDE
Power Polarization
Mode
Overlap
0 0.1592 Hybrid
1 0.0796554 Hybrid
2 0.00176492 TE
3 0.00490141 TE

Figure 10: Fundamental mode of Immersed Waveguide
Figure 10 shows the fundamental mode of the designed
immersed waveguide. It is observed from TABLE V that the
fundamental mode sends the maximum power for the designed
dimension. Here, specific concentrated energy patterns are
obtained which can be used for the propagation of torsional
waves along the structure.
Figure 11: Mask(Top View) of Immersed Waveguide
Figure 11 shows the top view of full device mask of the
immersed waveguide. Fabricating immersed waveguides
requires a specific mask for repeated etching of the substrate
for the core to be immersed in it. The deep etching can also be
done by increasing the time of etching. Here the process of
repeated mask has been used for better precision. The
dimension for the mask for substrate layer of is 6cm in width
and 1cm in length and the mask for etching of the substrate
layer and deposition of the core layer is 3cm in width 1cm in
length, each.
Figure 12: Fabricated Immersed Waveguide
Figure 12 shows the actual picture of the fabricated
immersed waveguide with transparent acrylic as the core and
milky acrylic as the substrate.
The following table shows the total number of masks
required for the fabrication of the waveguides. The
temperature maintained during fabrication (in simulation) of
all the waveguides is 20°C.
TABLE IV. MASKS REQUIRED FOR FABRICATION
Number of Etching Speed
Waveguide
masks
Rib 3 Not applicable
Embedded 3 1micrometer/minute
Immersed 3 3micrometer/minute
IV. CONCLUSION
The waveguides have been fabricated according to the design
simulated in the CAD tool-PhoeniX Software. The
waveguides have been fabricated using Acrylic, making use of
the difference of refractive index of the different types of
acrylic available in the Indian Market. The cost of fabrication
for each waveguide was approximately ₹ 50-60/- . This type of
cost effective model is helpful in making systems which may
not give very high end results, but are useful in proving of
concepts of optical physics and electromagnetics.
From the simulations it can be inferred that the type
of waveguides whose core is surrounded by cladding, like
embedded and immersed waveguide, the generated modes are
far more directed and concentrated. These types of
waveguides, can be used to couple the evanescent field to the
other similar waveguides in an all optic system.
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