A New Simple Method of Fabricating Micro/Nano-scale Polymer Optical Waveguides on a Copper Plate

초록

We developed, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, a new simple method of fabricating polymer optical waveguides on a copper plate by etching the copper micro-channels and filling them with polymer core material. This allows for integration of optical waveguides on conventional copper electrical printed circuit boards (PCBs). Optics on an electrical board is considered a promising solution to provide on-board integration of high-speed and high density data transmission that can overcome the limitations of the electrical transmission channel capacity.[1-3] While many attempts have been made to fabricate optoelectrical circuit boards by techniques such as hybrid-integration or lamination of optical waveguide layer and electrical circuit layer[4-5], these approaches are not compatible with the conventional PCB manufacturing processes and industrial applications. Our new approach, however, makes the processing much simpler and compatible with conventional manufacturing processes.