Rapid prototyping of interfacing microcomponents for printed circuit board-level optical interconnects

Jürgen Van Erps; Michael Vervaeke; Hugo Thienpont

doi:10.1117/12.912905

2 February 2012 Rapid prototyping of interfacing microcomponents for printed circuit board-level optical interconnects

Jürgen Van Erps, Michael Vervaeke, Hugo Thienpont

Proceedings Volume 8267, Optoelectronic Interconnects XII; 82670P (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.912905
Event: SPIE OPTO, 2012, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

One of the important challenges for the deployment of the emerging breed of nanotechnology components is interfacing them with the external world, preferably accomplished with low-cost micro-optical devices. For the fabrication of this kind of micro-optical components, we make use of deep proton writing (DPW) as a generic rapid prototyping technology. DPW consists of bombarding polymer samples with swift protons, which results after chemical processing steps in high quality micro-optical components. The strength of the DPW micro-machining technology is the ability to fabricate monolithic building blocks that include micro-optical and mechanical functionalities which can be precisely integrated into more complex photonic systems. In this paper we give an overview of the process steps of the technology and we present several examples of micro-optical and micro-mechanical components, fabricated through DPW, targeting applications in printed circuit baordlevel optical interconnections. These include: high-precision 2-D fiber connectors, discrete out-of-plane coupling structures featuring high-quality 45° and curved micro-mirrors, arrays of high aspect ratio micro-pillars and backplane connectors. While DPW is clearly not a mass fabrication technique as such, one of its assets is that once the master component has been prototyped, a metal mould can be generated from the DPW master by applying electroplating. After removal of the plastic master, this metal mould can be used as a shim in a final microinjection moulding or hot embossing step. This way, the master component can be mass-produced at low cost in a wide variety of high-tech plastics.

Citation Download Citation

Jürgen Van Erps, Michael Vervaeke, and Hugo Thienpont "Rapid prototyping of interfacing microcomponents for printed circuit board-level optical interconnects", Proc. SPIE 8267, Optoelectronic Interconnects XII, 82670P (2 February 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.912905

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KEYWORDS

Micromirrors

Connectors

Waveguides

Optical interconnects

Prototyping

Optical alignment

Rapid manufacturing

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